Disaster Cinema in Historical Perspective

Mediations of the Sublime
0. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-94-6372-012-0
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 356 Seiten, Format (B × H): 240 mm x 167 mm, Gewicht: 720 g

Reihe: Film Culture in Transition

How do we experience disaster films in cinema? And where does disaster cinema come from? The two questions are more closely related than one might initially think. For the framework of the cinematic experience of natural disasters has its roots in the mid-eighteenth century when the aesthetic category of the sublime was re-established as the primary mode for appreciating nature's violent forces. In this book, the sublime is understood as a complex and culturally specific meeting point between philosophical thought, artistic creation, social and technical development, and popular imagination. On the one hand, the sublime provides a receptive model to uncover how cinematic disaster depictions affect our senses, bodies and minds. On the other hand, this experiential framework of disaster cinema is only one of the most recent agents within the historical trajectory of sublime disasters, which is traced in this book among a broad range of media: from landscape and history painting to a variety of pictorial devices like Eidophusikon, Panorama, Diorama, and, finally, cinema.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mathias, Nikita

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstformen, Kunsthandwerk Installations-, Aktions-, Computer- und Videokunst
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunst, allgemein Kunsttheorie, Kunstphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunst, allgemein Geschichte der Kunstwissenschaft und Kunstkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

I. Introduction

Theories of the Sublime: Edmund Burke & Immanuel Kant

The Archeology and Iconography of the Sublime

Analyzing Disaster Movies

The Disaster Movie Genre and the Film Selection

Works Cited

II. Starting Points

Dutch Landscapes of the North

Transforming the Sublime. From Rhetoric to Experiencing Nature

Picturesque Views

Lisbon Shock Waves

Heroic Geology

Commodifying Nature. Earth Economics & Tourism

Works Cited

III. The Iconography of the Sublime

Virtual Windows. Claude Joseph Vernet at the Academy Salon

Remarkable Views. Caspar Wolf in the Alps

Volcano Montages: Derby, Valenciennes, Wutky, Volaire, Briullov

Works Cited

IV. Mediating the Sublime

Between Art Academy and Entertainment Culture: Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg

Apocalypse Here-and-Now. John Martin

'The Viewer Feels as Though His Eyelids Had Been Cut Off'. Visiting the Panorama

Panoramic Landscapes Through the Telescope: The Hudson River School

Nature's Forces in Motion: The Diorama

Works Cited

V. Cinema - A Medium of the Sublime?

Photographic Images in Motion

Is the Sublime a Somatic Experience?

Montage

Camera

Sound and Multimedia

Cinema

Works Cited

VI. Disaster Cinema. A Historical Overview

Disaster Films Between Documentary and Special Effects Newsreel

Early Epics and Travel Genres

Disaster Melodramas

Disaster Diversity: the 1950s and 1960s

'Disaster Movies' and Nuclear Wastelands

Digitally Painted Disasters

Works Cited

VII. The Sublime in Disaster Cinema

Patterns of Violence, or, The Sublime as Somatic Excess

1. Mise en images

2. Montage

3. Camera Movement

4. Sound

Points of Disinterest: Subjectivity

Beyond Imagination: Transcendence

1. Chasing Phantoms. The Disaster-Time-Image

2. Last Line of Defense. Ethics

3. 'Hear God Howl' - Religion and Spirituality

Modality, or, The Pleasure of the Sublime

Border Conflicts. Presentability

'It Is Gonna Send Us Back to the Stone Age!' - The Geological Sublime

Neighbor Relations: The Sublime and the Ridiculous

What Lies Ahead? Hyperobjects and the Sublime

Works Cited

VIII. Bibliography

IX. Index

Über Autor(innen)

Mathias, Nikita
Holding a PhD from the University of Tübingen, Germany, Nikita Mathias's main research interests lie within the fields of art history, media studies, aesthetics, and literary studies. Besides his academic career, he has worked as a journalist and in various positions in the cultural sector. In his current occupation, he holds the position of Senior Concept Developer at the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, which involves creating meaningful and engaging art experiences as well as publications and research.