Phenomenology of Film: A Heideggerian Account of the Film Experience

by Shawn Loht

Overview

Phenomenology of Film: A Heideggerian Account of the Film Experience uses the philosophy of Martin Heidegger as a framework for addressing key issues in the philosophy of film. This study grapples with the question of how we can reconcile film as a popular entertainment medium with Heidegger’s own various critiques of popular media and culture throughout his career. Shawn Loht also explores topics such as the ontology of film and moving images; the phenomenological character of the viewer experience; film conceived as an art medium; and the function of films as vehicles for philosophical thought. He further discusses important concepts from Heidegger’s philosophy--Dasein, existentiality, world, art and poetry, and the nature of philosophy. The first four chapters take up these issues from a theoretical perspective. The remaining chapters provide robust application of the theoretical material to the films of three contemporary filmmakers: Terrence Malick, Michael Haneke, and David Gordon Green.
As the first single-author monograph that takes up Heidegger’s relevance to film, Phenomenology of Film will be of particular interest to philosophers of film and specialists of film and media studies working in the intersection of phenomenology and film or phenomenological approaches to issues in popular culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498519038
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	08/25/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	220
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Shawn Loht is institutional researcher at Baton Rouge Community College.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter One: Precis to a Heideggerian Phenomenology of Film
Chapter Two: Heidegger's Being and Time: Film Experience as Being-in-the-World
Chapter Three: Film and Heidegger's Philosophy of Art
Chapter Four: Phenomenology and the Concept of Film-as-Philosophy
Chapter Five: Terrence Malick
Chapter Six: Michael Haneke's Code Unknown and The White Ribbon
Chapter Seven: David Gordon Green's Joe, and an Afterword
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Loht’s Phenomenology of Film offers an original and productive contribution to contemporary film phenomenology. It shows how a Heideggerian approach to phenomenological inquiry provides a rich basis for theorising otherwise neglected aspects of film experience (such as the disclosive role of moods and importance of film worlds) but also helps us to understand the ontological dimensions of cinematic disclosure while offering new ways of treating cinema phenomenologically as a way of thinking and experiencing the world. The articles assembled in this dossier explore as well as challenge and question Loht’s approach, but all are united in acknowledging his important contribution to contemporary film phenomenology.

Film-Philosophy

Articles with Heideggerian interpretations of films have appeared over the years, but this is the first book length study, and its about time.... The text is refeshingly personal for a philosophy book.

Ereignis

Shawn Loht has broken new ground in bringing a Heideggerian way of thinking to philosophical film theory. He not only develops a rich phenomenological approach to cinematic engagement via Heidegger's account of being-in-the-world but also offers an original perspective on the debate over the idea film as philosophy. With illuminating chapters exploring the films of Terrence Malick, Michael Haneke, and David Gordon Green, Loht's book promises to rejuvenate phenomenological film theory by staging an admirably lucid philosophical encounter between Heidegger and cinema.

Robert Sinnerbrink

[I]n a highly effective and unique manner Loht engages – confronts– Heidegger’s phenomenological ontology and uses it to convincingly and successfully think with and then beyond Heidegger, offering us an original and illuminating study of the phenomenological-ontological aspects of film-as-philosophy.. . Loht’s book, in my estimation, will have a wide appeal to practitioners within a myriad of disciplines.. . This is Loht’s first monograph as a philosopher, and this book gives the positive impression that his future publications will be, much like this impressive text, books that challenge orthodoxy and push hard against comfortable, complacent, and even dogmatic, philosophical interpretations.

Comparative and Continental Philosophy

Phenomenology of Film is written in a clear and direct style and is accessible to readers who might be unfamiliar with the highly technical philosophy of Heidegger. It will greatly appeal to film theorists and film-philosophers, students and scholars of philosophy, and educators incorporating the philosophy-through-film approach in their classrooms. Loht’s scholarship admirably contributes new thoughts to, and indeed invigorates, the field of film-as-philosophy. Loht effectively confronts Heidegger’s phenomenological ontology in order convincingly and successfully to think with and then beyond Heidegger, offering us an original and illuminating study into the phenomenological-ontological aspects of film-as-philosophy.

Senses Of Cinema