Description
Book SynopsisHow 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.
Trade Review"
Disaster Cinema in Historical Perspective: Mediations of the Sublime is a genuine and original contribution to the fields of art history and cinema studies as well as to discussions on the concept of the sublime in the field of aesthetics. It is well-organized, well-informed, and lucidly written and draws on an impressive body of empirical and theoretical materials. As importantly, it is critical and nuanced in its claims and assertions, leaving ample room for discussion and counter-argument." - Ina Blom, University of Chicago, University of Oslo
Table of ContentsI. 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
