What is philosophical about film? What does philosophy have to say about cinema? How can a film be philosophical? How can a camera movement or narrative twist be a form of thought? This course explores these questions across a range of philosophical writings dealing with ontological, phenomenological, hermeneutic, and aesthetic aspects of the cinematic experience. Rather than treating cinema as an illustration of various theories, we shall examine the ways in which cinema as a medium itself raises philosophical problems, explores philosophical themes in visual and narrative terms, and has philosophical implications for understanding modern culture.
We begin by studying texts dealing with the problem of cinematic representation, visual perception, and the ontology of the moving image. We then consider the question of subjectivity in cinema, exploring the phenomenology of movement and time-consciousness, as well as cinematic reflections on personal identity, and filmic explorations of unconscious desire. Finally, we explore the cultural, aesthetic, and ideological implications of cinema as a technological artform. Here we investigate the work of philosophers who analyse specific film genres or aesthetic aspects of film interpretation (eg Stanley Cavell and Noël Carroll) as well as philosophers who theorise the cultural, historical, and ideological dimentions of modern cinematic texts (eg Walter Benjamin and Slavoj Zizek). Various films and cinematic auteurs will also be studied throughout the course.
