Embodied visions : evolution, emotion, culture, and film

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Title:

Author:

Grodal, Torben Kragh.

ISBN:

9780195371314

9780195371321

Personal Author:

Grodal, Torben Kragh.

Publication Information:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.

Physical Description:

viii, 324 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

General Note:

Formerly CIP.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Evolution, Biology, Culture, and Film -- Pt. I. Film, Culture, and Evolution -- 2. Universalism, Cultural Variation, and Children's Film -- 3. Love and Desire in the Cinema -- 4. Screaming Lambs and Lusty Wolves: Moral Attitudes and Evolution -- 5. Undead Ghosts and Living Prey: Fantasy and Horror -- 6. Sadness, Melodrama, and Rituals of Loss and Death -- Pt. II. Narrative,Visual Aesthetics, Brain, and the PECMA Flow -- Introduction to Part II: The PECMA Flow -- 7. Stories for Eyes, Ears, and Muscles: The Evolution of Embodied Simulations -- 8. Character Simulation and Emotion -- 9. Art Film, the Transient Body, and the Permanent Soul -- 10. Subjective Aesthetics in Film -- II. The Experience of Audiovisual Realism -- 12. Conclusion: The Gene-Culture Stream and Bioculturalism -- Appendix. Frozen PECMA Flows in Trier's Oeuvre.

Abstract:

"Embodied Visions presents an analysis of film through the lens of bioculturalism, revealing how human biology as well as human culture determine how films are made and experienced. Throughout his study, Torben Grodal uses the breakthroughs of modern brain science to explain central features of film aesthetics and to construct a general model of aesthetic experience - what he terms the PECMA flow model - that demonstrates the movement of information and emotions in the brain when viewing film."

"Examining a wide array of genres - animation, romance, pornography, fantasy, horror - from evolutionary and psychological frameworks, Grodal expands his scope to reflect on social issues at the intersection of film theory and neuropsychology, including moral problems in film viewing, how we experience realism and character identification, and the value of the subjective forms that cinema elaborates. Embodied Visions broadens the theoretical framework of cognitive approaches to cinema while contributing toward a growing body of work on the relation between biology and culture."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject Term:

Motion pictures -- Psychological aspects.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025523487	791.43019 G873E 2009	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Embodied Visions presents a groundbreaking analysis of film through the lens of bioculturalism, revealing how human biology as well as human culture determine how films are made and experienced. Throughout his study, Torben Grodal uses the breakthroughs of modern brain science to explain central features of film aesthetics and to construct a general model of aesthetic experience--what he terms the PECMA flow model--that demonstrates the movement of information and emotions in the brain when viewing film. Examining a wide array of genres--animation, romance, pornography, fantasy, horror--from evolutionary and psychological frameworks, Grodal expands his scope to reflect on social issues at the intersection of film theory and neuropsychology, including moral problems in film viewing, how we experience realism and character identification, and the value of the subjective forms that cinema elaborates. Embodied Visions broadens the theoretical framework of cognitive approaches to cinema while contributing toward a growing body of work on the relation between biology and culture.