Moving Pictures: A New Theory of Film Genres, Feelings, and Cognition
Torben Grodal
Abstract
This book is a bold theoretical account of the role of emotions and cognition in producing the aesthetic effects of film and television genres. It argues that film genres are mental structures that integrate sensations, emotions, and actions, activating the viewer's body and mind. Using recent developments in neuroscience and cognitive science, in combination with narrative theory and film theory, the author provides an alternative account to that offered by psychoanalysis explaining identification and the correlation of viewer reaction with specific film genres. The book concludes with an ana ... More
This book is a bold theoretical account of the role of emotions and cognition in producing the aesthetic effects of film and television genres. It argues that film genres are mental structures that integrate sensations, emotions, and actions, activating the viewer's body and mind. Using recent developments in neuroscience and cognitive science, in combination with narrative theory and film theory, the author provides an alternative account to that offered by psychoanalysis explaining identification and the correlation of viewer reaction with specific film genres. The book concludes with an analysis of the emotional structures of comic fiction, metafiction, crime fiction, horror, and melodrama. It is unique in describing a wide range of problems and issues within film studies, from a cognitive, neurophysiological, and ecological point of view.
Keywords:
film theory,
television,
emotion,
cognition,
aesthetics,
sensation,
narrative theory,
film studies,
emotional structure
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 1999 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198159834 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159834.001.0001 |
