Short description:

This book analyzes film experience through the lens of Baruch Spinoza?s embodied philosophy. Spinoza?s philosophy allows us to appreciate and master sad passions and, at the same time, to show the conceptual power of film experience.

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Long description:

This work outlines a new methodology for film analysis based on the radical materialist thought of Baruch Spinoza, re-evaluating contemporary cognitive media theory and philosophical theories on the emotional and intellectual aspects of film experience.

Sticchi?s exploration of Spinozian philosophy creates an experiential constructive model to blend the affective and intellectual aspects of cognition, and to combine it with different philosophical interpretations of film theory. Spinoza?s embodied philosophy rejected logical and ethical dualisms, and established a perfect parallelism between sensation and reason and provides the opportunity to address negative emotions and sad passions without referring exclusively to traditional notions such as catharsis or sublimation, and to put forth a practical/embodied notion of Film-Philosophy. This new analytical approach is tested on four case studies, films that challenge the viewer?s emotional engagement since they display situations of cosmic failure and depict controversial and damaged characters: A Serious Man (2009); Melancholia (2011); The Act of Killing (2012) and Only Lovers Left Alive (2013).

This book is an important addition to the literature in Film Studies, particularly in Cognitive Film Theory and Philosophy of Film. Its affective and semantic analyses of film experience (studies of embodied conceptualisation), connecting Spinoza?s thought to the analysis of audiovisual media, will also be of interest to Philosophy scholars and in academic courses of film theory, film-philosophy and cognitive film studies.

"Sticchi commendably navigates some of the most complex philosophical writings ranging from Spinoza through cognitivism to Gilles Deleuze and back. This, in and of itself, is no mean feat, and the material Sticchi discusses is extraordinarily rich, complex, and open to a variety of interpretations." - Tarja Laine, University of Amsterdam

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Table of Contents:

Introduction Part 1 Philosophical Models and Interpretative Instruments 1 From Spinoza to the Embodied Mind A Radical Notion of Immanence The Embodied Mind Body Concepts and Idealised Cognitive Models Metonymical and Metaphorical Blending Emotions and the Imitation of the Affects Sad Passions and Knowledge as the Most Powerful of the Affects Summary and Conclusions Part 2 A Spinozian-Experiential Theory of Film 2 A Spinozian Re-Evaluation of Cognitive Film Theory Top-Down Processes and Cognitive Semiotics The Ecological Psychology of Film Engaging Film Characters Scenarios, Moods, and the Imaginative Dynamics of Involvement Embodied Simulation and Films Experiential Perspectives on Film Analysis Conclusions 3 A Spinozian Philosophy of Film Experience The Relation between Philosophy and Cinema Film Are Percepts The Issue of Trauma and Sad Passions in Film Experience Summary and Conclusions: The Experiential Viewer and Her/His Possibilities Part 3 Case Studies: Four Melancholic Films 4 A Contemporary Job: A Serious Man 5 The World Shatters: Melancholia 6 Mastering Genocide: The Act of Killing 7 Time Is a Flat Circle: Only Lovers Left Alive Conclusions Bibliography Index

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