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Elisabeth Bronfen investigates the nocturnal spaces in which extraordinary events unfold, and casts a critical eye into the darkness that enables the irrational exploration of desire, transformation, ecstasy, transgression, spiritual illumination, and moral choice. She begins with an analysis of classical myths depicting the creation of the world and then moves through night scenes in Shakespeare and Milton, Gothic novels and novellas, Hegel¿s romantic philosophy, and Freud¿s psychoanalysis. Bronfen also demonstrates how modern works of literature and film, particularly film noir, can convey that piece of night the modern subject carries within. From Mozart¿s ¿Queen of the Night¿ to Virginia Woolf ¿s oscillation between day and night, life and death, and chaos and aesthetic form, Bronfen renders something visible, conceivable, and comprehensible from the dark realms of the unknown.
List of contents
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsPart I: From Philosophy to Film1. Philosophy, Democracy, and the Turn to Film2. Freedom and Persuasion3. On InterpretationPart II: Film and the Social Imaginary4. Violence and the State5. Love, Romance, and PornographyConclusion: Film, Faith, and LoveNotes Bibliography: Essays on Sources Index
About the author
Elisabeth Bronfen is professor of English and American studies at the University of Zürich. Her numerous books include Specters of War: Hollywood¿s Engagement with Military Conflict; Over Her Dead Body: Death, Femininity, and the Aesthetic; The Knotted Subject: Hysteria and Its Discontents; and Home in Hollywood: The Imaginary Geography of Cinema.
Summary
Paul W. Kahn finds in popular films a new setting for a philosophical inquiry into timeless themes. He explores the nature of action and interpretation, and narratives of politics, family, and faith. Engaging with genres as diverse as romantic comedy, slasher film, and pornography, Kahn explores the social imaginary through which we create and maintain a meaningful world.
