Hitchcock as Philosopher

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by Robert J. Yanal

Type: Studies
Subject: Director > Alfred Hitchcock
Keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, philosophy, director
Publishing date: 2005
Publisher: McFarland & Co
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 216 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN-10 ISBN-13

0-7864-2281-5
978-0-7864-2281-4

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Book Presentation:
The films of Alfred Hitchcock deal heavily with psychological and philosophical themes, and one needn’t look very far into the canon to find them. In Psycho, for example, the personality metamorphosis in Marion Crane that leads her into grand larceny is a pale double of the murderous oedipal divide in Norman Bates. In The Birds, overbearing natural mutations turn what might have been a “creature feature” into a film about fear of the unknowable.

This book looks at 12 Hitchcock films and the positions they put forth on three problem areas of epistemology: deception, knowledge of mind, and problematic knowledge of the external world. These philosophical concepts are explained and woven into the author’s thorough and thought-provoking discussion of each film. Descartes and Wittengenstein star; Plato, Locke, Hume, Kant and Kierkegaard also make appearances in this new “philosopher’s cut” of the master’s works.

About the Author:
Robert J. Yanal is emeritus professor of philosophy at Wayne State University, Detroit. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Press Reviews:
"well written"—Philosophy Now; "a refreshingly straightforward, engaging volume"—Hitchcock Annual.

See the publisher website: McFarland & Co

See the complete filmography of Alfred Hitchcock on the website: IMDB ...

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