Cinematic RealismLukács, Kracauer and Theories of the Filmic Real
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About this book
- Explores classical and contemporary theories of cinematic realism to assess their overall key concepts and intellectual configurations
- Explores classical theories of cinematic realism more deeply through an analysis of Lukacs/Bergson/time and Kracauer/Husserl/Space
- Offers some conclusions on what the central key concepts and intellectual configuration of cinematic realism are; and on what consequences flow from this
The issue of cinematic realism is important because the issue of realism, of the relationship between representation and reality, is important. If some forms of representation are closer to reality – however defined – than others, then this may also be the case with forms of filmic representation. In this book, Ian Aitken links the issue of cinematic realism to important questions concerning human experience, analysing the close similarity between the film image and visual perception, and how different theories of realism have sought to uncover the way film’s relation to reality can be understood.
Focusing on the writings of Georg Lukács and Siegfried Kracauer, Cinematic Realism is a comprehensive exploration of cinematic realist theory.
Reviews
For decades Ian Aitken has been thinking deeply about cinematic realism, working tirelessly to interrogate the fundamental premises and limitations of previous theories of representation and reality. This latest book presents the apogee of his thinking, revealing via a series of intense readings of Lukács and Kracauer the implicit philosophical assumptions, methods, and problems behind their theoretical systems.
Table of contents
Introduction: Representation, perception, and cinematic realism
Chapter 1: Bergson, the image, and time
Chapter 2: Introduction to Lukács; essence, phenomena and temporality
Chapter 3: ‘On the Phenomenology of the Creative Process’ (Lukács, 1914)
Chapter 4: ‘Thoughts towards an Aesthetic of the Cinema’ (Lukács, 1913)
Chapter 5: The Specificity of the Aesthetic (Lukács, 1963)
Chapter 6: Husserl, epochē, and Lebenswelt
Chapter 7: Introduction to Kracauer; abstraction, redemption and modernity
Chapter 8: ‘Photography’ (Kracauer, 1927)
Chapter 9: ‘Introduction: Photography’ and ‘Basic Concepts’, from Theory of Film (Kracauer, 1960)
Chapter 10: ‘The Historical Approach’, and ‘The Historian’s Journey’, from History: The Last Things Before the Last (Kracauer, 1968)
Bibliography
Index