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Film as Philosophy
Edited by Bernd Herzogenrath
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Book Presentation:
Film and philosophy have much in common, and books have been written on film and philosophy. But can films be, or do, philosophy? Can they “think”? Film as Philosophy is the first book to explore this fascinating question historically, thematically, and methodically.
Bringing together leading scholars from universities across the globe, Film as Philosophy presents major new research that leads film studies and philosophy into a productive dialogue. It provides a uniquely sweeping, historical overview of the confluence of film and philosophy for more than a century, considering films from Jean Renoir, Lars von Trier, Jørgen Leth, David Lynch, Michael Haneke, and others; the written works of filmmakers who also theorized on the medium, including Sergei Eisenstein and Jean Epstein; and others who have written on cinema, including Hugo Münsterberg, Béla Balázs, André Bazin, Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, Stanley Cavell, Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancière, and many more.
Representing a major step toward establishing a media philosophy that puts the status, role, and function of film into a new perspective, Film as Philosophy removes representational techniques from the center of inquiry, replacing these with the medium’s ability to “think.” Hence it accords film with “agency,” and the dialogue between it and philosophy (and even neuroscience) is negotiated anew.
Contributors: Nicole Brenez, U of Paris 3–Sorbonne; Elisabeth Bronfen, U of Zurich; Noël Carroll, CUNY; Tom Conley, Harvard U; Angela Dalle Vacche, Georgia Institute of Technology; Gregory Flaxman, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Alex Ling, Western Sydney U; Adrian Martin, Monash U; John Ó Maoilearca, Kingston U, London; Robert Sinnerbrink, Macquarie U, Sydney; Murray Smith, U of Kent, Canterbury; Julia Vassilieva, Monash U, Melbourne; Christophe Wall-Romana, U of Minnesota; and Thomas E. Wartenberg, Mount Holyoke College.
About the Author:
Bernd Herzogenrath is professor of American literature and culture at Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He is the author of An Art of Desire: Reading Paul Auster and An American Body|Politic: A Deleuzian Approach.
Press Reviews:
"The essays in this superb collection show how contradictory and even imaginary the field is. Highly recommended."—CHOICE
"Film As Philosophy offers the reader a productive set of ideas for navigating today’s post-everything landscape."—Leonardo
"This is a dense but very instructive volume for both novice and knowledgeable readers interested in the relation of film and philosophy. These essays offer a comprehensive range of theoretical accounts and genealogies that explore the film-philosophy encounter as one that elicits fruitful and open possibilities of thought." —European Journal of American Studies
"The essays in this superb collection show how contradictory and even imaginary the field is. Highly recommended."—CHOICE
"Film as Philosophy offers the reader a productive set of ideas for navigating today’s post-everything landscape."—Leonardo
"Film as Philosophy is a big book, in more ways than one, and a strong contribution to the debate about whether film can actually do the work of philosophy."—Film International
"This is a dense but very instructive volume for both novice and knowledgeable readers interested in the relation of film and philosophy. These essays offer a comprehensive range of theoretical accounts and genealogies that explore the film-philosophy encounter as one that elicits fruitful and open possibilities of thought."—European Journal of American Studies
"Film as Philosophy represents a remarkable achievement, providing a unique overview of its subject that at once serves as an illuminating introduction for those unfamiliar with the field, and advances our understanding of film as a cognitive rather than a purely representational phenomenon–of film as philosophy."—Film-Philosophy
See the publisher website: University of Minnesota Press
> From the same author:
The Films of Bill Morrison (2018)
Aesthetics of the Archive
Dir. Bernd Herzogenrath
Subject: Director > Bill Morrison
Edgar G. Ulmer (2009)
Essays on the King of the B's
Dir. Bernd Herzogenrath
Subject: Director > Edgar G. Ulmer
The Cinema of Tod Browning (2008)
Essays of the Macabre and Grotesque
Dir. Bernd Herzogenrath
Subject: Director > Tod Browning
> On a related topic:
Cinema of/for the Anthropocene (2025)
Affect, Ecology, and More-Than-Human Kinship
Dir. Katarzyna Paszkiewicz and Andrea Ruthven
Subject: Theory
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