Embodied Visions: Evolution, Emotion, Culture, and Film

by Torben Grodal

Overview

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 perspectives, Grodal also reflects on social issues at the intersection of film theory and neuropsychology. These include moral problems in film viewing, how we experience realism and character identification, and the value of the subjective forms that cinema uniquely elaborates.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190451646
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/17/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Torben Grodal is Professor of Film and Media at the University of Copenhagen. He is author of numerous publications, including Moving Pictures: A New Theory of Film Genres, Feelings, and Cognition.

Table of Contents

I Introduction: Evolution, Biology, Culture, and Film 3

Part I Film, Culture, and Evolution

2 Universalism, Cultural Variation, and Children's Film 25

3 Love and Desire in the Cinema 56

4 Screaming Lambs and Lusty Wolves: Moral Attitudes and Evolution 79

5 Undead Ghosts and Living Prey: Fantasy and Horror 97

6 Sadness, Melodrama, and Rituals of Loss and Death 122

Part II Narrative, Visual Aesthetics, Brain, and the PECMA Flow

Introduction to Part II: The PECMA Flow 145

7 Stories for Eyes, Ears, and Muscles: The Evolution of Embodied Simulations 158

8 Character Simulation and Emotion 181

9 Art Film, the Transient Body, and the Permanent Soul 205

10 Subjective Aesthetics in Film 229

11 The Experience of Audiovisual Realism 250

12 Conclusion: The Gene-Culture Stream and Bioculturalism 271

Appendix: Frozen PECMA Flows in Trier's Oeuvre 279

Reference 301

Index 315

Editorial Reviews

"We have long needed a theory of film which was naturalistic-which shows what cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology, and brain science can tell us about movies. Torben Grodal has created a comprehensive and detailed version of such a theory. He ranges widely across genres and periods, old media and new, and he finds something new to say about every subject he touches. Embodied Visions gives us a provocative set of explanations for how and why we get so emotionally invested in shadows on a screen."-David Bordwell, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"For decades the field of film studies has been under the sway of theories of social and linguistic determinism. Challenging these approaches, Grodal brilliantly shows why the natural sciences are relevant for a comprehensive understanding of cinema. This book is essential reading for scholars and viewers seeking to understand film as a universal and cross-cultural medium of expression."-Stephen Prince, Virginia Tech

"Grodal has thrown down the gauntlet to film studies, giving us the first really detailed model of an evolutionary theory of film. This work will become a major reference point for scholars working on similar terrain, and indeed for any serious theorist of film."-Murray Smith, University of Kent

From the Publisher