ENGLISH

Moving Viewers: American Film and the Spectator's Experience

By Carl Plantinga

Book information

Publisher
University of California Press
Year
2009
ISBN
9780520943919
DOI
10.1525/9780520943919
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
4 MB (4300068 bytes)
Pages
296\292
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-21 19:29:22

Description

Everyone knows the thrill of being transported by a film, but what is it that makes movie watching such a compelling emotional experience? In Moving Viewers, Carl Plantinga explores this question and the implications of its answer for aesthetics, the psychology of spectatorship, and the place of movies in culture. Through an in-depth discussion of mainstream Hollywood films, Plantinga investigates what he terms "the paradox of negative emotion" and the function of mainstream narratives as ritualistic fantasies. He describes the sensual nature of the movies and shows how film emotions are often elicited for rhetorical purposes. He uses cognitive science and philosophical aesthetics to demonstrate why cinema may deliver a similar emotional charge for diverse audiences.

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