Torben Grodal
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195371314
- eISBN:
- 9780199870585
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195371314.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This book provides analysis of how human biology, as well as human culture, determines the ways films are made and experienced. This new approach is called “bioculturalism.” The book shows how ...
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This book provides analysis of how human biology, as well as human culture, determines the ways films are made and experienced. This new approach is called “bioculturalism.” The book shows how important formats, such as films for children, romantic films, pornography, fantasy films, horror films, and sad melodramas, appeal to an array of different emotions that have been ingrained in the human embodied brain by the evolutionary process. The book also discusses how these biological dispositions are molded by culture. It explains why certain themes and emotions fascinate viewers all over the globe at all times, and how different cultures invest their own values and tastes in the universal themes.The book further uses the breakthroughs of modern brain science to explain central features of film aesthetics and to construct a general model of aesthetic experience, the PECMA flow model, which explains how the flow of information and emotions in the embodied brain provides a series of aesthetic experiences. The combination of film theory, cognitive psychology, neurology, and evolutionary theory provides explanations for why narrative forms are appealing and how and why art films use different mental mechanisms than those that support mainstream narrative films, as well as how film evokes images of inner, spiritual life and feelings of realism.Embodied Visions provides a new synthesis in film and media studies and aesthetics that combines cultural history with the long history of the evolution of our embodied brains.Less
This book provides analysis of how human biology, as well as human culture, determines the ways films are made and experienced. This new approach is called “bioculturalism.” The book shows how important formats, such as films for children, romantic films, pornography, fantasy films, horror films, and sad melodramas, appeal to an array of different emotions that have been ingrained in the human embodied brain by the evolutionary process. The book also discusses how these biological dispositions are molded by culture. It explains why certain themes and emotions fascinate viewers all over the globe at all times, and how different cultures invest their own values and tastes in the universal themes.The book further uses the breakthroughs of modern brain science to explain central features of film aesthetics and to construct a general model of aesthetic experience, the PECMA flow model, which explains how the flow of information and emotions in the embodied brain provides a series of aesthetic experiences. The combination of film theory, cognitive psychology, neurology, and evolutionary theory provides explanations for why narrative forms are appealing and how and why art films use different mental mechanisms than those that support mainstream narrative films, as well as how film evokes images of inner, spiritual life and feelings of realism.Embodied Visions provides a new synthesis in film and media studies and aesthetics that combines cultural history with the long history of the evolution of our embodied brains.
Mark William Roche
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300104493
- eISBN:
- 9780300129595
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300104493.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter asks the question of what aesthetic and hermeneutic principles guide literary criticism in this day and age. The chapter thus provides an evaluation of two ruling methodologies of the ...
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This chapter asks the question of what aesthetic and hermeneutic principles guide literary criticism in this day and age. The chapter thus provides an evaluation of two ruling methodologies of the era: the historical methodology and the formalist methodology—or the schools of culture studies and deconstruction. The chapter goes on to discuss their weaknesses and how they neglect the aesthetic dimension and unique value of literature. The chapter also asks the question of what are the standards and criteria for good art—a question that critics often ask of literature but also one that does not add value to literary criticism. The question that should be asked, therefore, is what critics and the general public indirectly value as great art. The chapter suggests three criteria. First, is the process of a work's production (the author's gender, race, or class). The second is the worth of an idea, characterized by its truth in the real world. The third is to give female and minorities models to follow.Less
This chapter asks the question of what aesthetic and hermeneutic principles guide literary criticism in this day and age. The chapter thus provides an evaluation of two ruling methodologies of the era: the historical methodology and the formalist methodology—or the schools of culture studies and deconstruction. The chapter goes on to discuss their weaknesses and how they neglect the aesthetic dimension and unique value of literature. The chapter also asks the question of what are the standards and criteria for good art—a question that critics often ask of literature but also one that does not add value to literary criticism. The question that should be asked, therefore, is what critics and the general public indirectly value as great art. The chapter suggests three criteria. First, is the process of a work's production (the author's gender, race, or class). The second is the worth of an idea, characterized by its truth in the real world. The third is to give female and minorities models to follow.
Nicola Cooper, Martin Hurcombe, and Debra Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.020
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines how the study of France has played a pivotal role in the development of ‘war and culture studies’ in the UK. It first considers more generally the ‘cultural turn’ in war studies ...
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This chapter examines how the study of France has played a pivotal role in the development of ‘war and culture studies’ in the UK. It first considers more generally the ‘cultural turn’ in war studies in recent decades, and then looks specifically at the work of the Group for War and Culture Studies (GWACS) and its contributing scholars in developing a particular approach to the relationship between war and culture during conflict and its aftermath in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It asks: Why should the study of war be of such interest to scholars in the humanities and to students and researchers in French and Francophone Studies in particular?Less
This chapter examines how the study of France has played a pivotal role in the development of ‘war and culture studies’ in the UK. It first considers more generally the ‘cultural turn’ in war studies in recent decades, and then looks specifically at the work of the Group for War and Culture Studies (GWACS) and its contributing scholars in developing a particular approach to the relationship between war and culture during conflict and its aftermath in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It asks: Why should the study of war be of such interest to scholars in the humanities and to students and researchers in French and Francophone Studies in particular?
Ian Buchanan and Adrian Parr
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623419
- eISBN:
- 9780748652389
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623419.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This book joins the pragmatic philosophy of Gilles Deleuze to current affairs. The twelve new essays in the volume use a contemporary context to think through and with Deleuze. Engaging the here and ...
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This book joins the pragmatic philosophy of Gilles Deleuze to current affairs. The twelve new essays in the volume use a contemporary context to think through and with Deleuze. Engaging the here and now, the contributors use the Deleuzian theoretical apparatus to think about issues such as military activity in the Middle East, refugees, terrorism, information and communication, and the State. The book is aimed both at specialists of Deleuze, and those who are unfamiliar with his work but who are interested in current affairs. Incorporating political theory and philosophy, culture studies, sociology, international studies, and Middle Eastern studies, it is designed to appeal to a wide audience.Less
This book joins the pragmatic philosophy of Gilles Deleuze to current affairs. The twelve new essays in the volume use a contemporary context to think through and with Deleuze. Engaging the here and now, the contributors use the Deleuzian theoretical apparatus to think about issues such as military activity in the Middle East, refugees, terrorism, information and communication, and the State. The book is aimed both at specialists of Deleuze, and those who are unfamiliar with his work but who are interested in current affairs. Incorporating political theory and philosophy, culture studies, sociology, international studies, and Middle Eastern studies, it is designed to appeal to a wide audience.
Victoria Watts
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199939985
- eISBN:
- 9780199333134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199939985.003.0018
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
“Archives of Embodiment: Visual Culture and the Practice of Score Reading” moves from an inward, dance-specific perspective to make larger claims about several notation systems emerging from the ...
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“Archives of Embodiment: Visual Culture and the Practice of Score Reading” moves from an inward, dance-specific perspective to make larger claims about several notation systems emerging from the needs and ethos of their unique times and cultures. Dance notation presents an object of inquiry through which to explore the inherent corporeality of vision, and it allows the reader to follow the author's firsthand experience in reading and writing scores. The “thick description” of that process is presented as an invitation to enjoy a more embodied examination than previous texts have provided. Beginning with a comparative analysis of two scores, in Labanotation, of George Balanchine's Serenade, questions about embodiment and the historical evolution of notation systems are overlaid with theories drawn from Visual Culture Studies.Less
“Archives of Embodiment: Visual Culture and the Practice of Score Reading” moves from an inward, dance-specific perspective to make larger claims about several notation systems emerging from the needs and ethos of their unique times and cultures. Dance notation presents an object of inquiry through which to explore the inherent corporeality of vision, and it allows the reader to follow the author's firsthand experience in reading and writing scores. The “thick description” of that process is presented as an invitation to enjoy a more embodied examination than previous texts have provided. Beginning with a comparative analysis of two scores, in Labanotation, of George Balanchine's Serenade, questions about embodiment and the historical evolution of notation systems are overlaid with theories drawn from Visual Culture Studies.
Peter N. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780801453700
- eISBN:
- 9781501708244
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453700.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter looks back to an eminent predecessor of these twentieth-century antiquarians and artists, Karl Lamprecht (1856–1915). Arguably the most important historian for the twentieth century and ...
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This chapter looks back to an eminent predecessor of these twentieth-century antiquarians and artists, Karl Lamprecht (1856–1915). Arguably the most important historian for the twentieth century and yet one of the least known to non-specialists, Lamprecht fills the role of grandfather to the formulators of “material culture studies”—and father to the pioneers who wrote history from material sources without giving their vision a name. Today, Lamprecht is mostly recognized for the debate about his cultural history, the Lamprecht-Streit, which was as much a debate about what history should constitute as it was a debate about whether Lamprecht was a good historian. Yet Lamprecht's career goes further than that, as this chapter shows, and his academic work has left a strong influence on the twentieth-century proponents of material culture discussed in the previous chapter.Less
This chapter looks back to an eminent predecessor of these twentieth-century antiquarians and artists, Karl Lamprecht (1856–1915). Arguably the most important historian for the twentieth century and yet one of the least known to non-specialists, Lamprecht fills the role of grandfather to the formulators of “material culture studies”—and father to the pioneers who wrote history from material sources without giving their vision a name. Today, Lamprecht is mostly recognized for the debate about his cultural history, the Lamprecht-Streit, which was as much a debate about what history should constitute as it was a debate about whether Lamprecht was a good historian. Yet Lamprecht's career goes further than that, as this chapter shows, and his academic work has left a strong influence on the twentieth-century proponents of material culture discussed in the previous chapter.
Michael J. O'Brien and Stephen J. Shennan (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262013338
- eISBN:
- 9780262259101
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013338.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
In recent years an interest in applying the principles of evolution to the study of culture emerged in the social sciences. Archaeologists and anthropologists reconsidered the role of innovation in ...
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In recent years an interest in applying the principles of evolution to the study of culture emerged in the social sciences. Archaeologists and anthropologists reconsidered the role of innovation in particular, and have moved toward characterizing innovation in cultural systems not only as a product but also as an evolutionary process. This distinction was familiar to biology but new to the social sciences; cultural evolutionists from the nineteenth to the twentieth century had tended to see innovation as a preprogrammed change that occurred when a cultural group “needed” to overcome environmental problems. This book, from the perspective of a variety of disciplines—including anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, philosophy, and psychology—offers different perspectives on cultural innovation. The book provides not only a range of views but also an integrated account, with the chapters offering an orderly progression of thought. The chapters consider innovation in biological terms, discussing epistemology, animal studies, systematics and phylogeny, phenotypic plasticity and evolvability, and evo-devo; they discuss modern insights into innovation, including simulation, the random-copying model, diffusion, and demographic analysis; and offer case studies of innovation from archaeological and ethnographic records, examining developmental, behavioral, and social patterns.Less
In recent years an interest in applying the principles of evolution to the study of culture emerged in the social sciences. Archaeologists and anthropologists reconsidered the role of innovation in particular, and have moved toward characterizing innovation in cultural systems not only as a product but also as an evolutionary process. This distinction was familiar to biology but new to the social sciences; cultural evolutionists from the nineteenth to the twentieth century had tended to see innovation as a preprogrammed change that occurred when a cultural group “needed” to overcome environmental problems. This book, from the perspective of a variety of disciplines—including anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, philosophy, and psychology—offers different perspectives on cultural innovation. The book provides not only a range of views but also an integrated account, with the chapters offering an orderly progression of thought. The chapters consider innovation in biological terms, discussing epistemology, animal studies, systematics and phylogeny, phenotypic plasticity and evolvability, and evo-devo; they discuss modern insights into innovation, including simulation, the random-copying model, diffusion, and demographic analysis; and offer case studies of innovation from archaeological and ethnographic records, examining developmental, behavioral, and social patterns.
Lisa Horton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781628460919
- eISBN:
- 9781626740532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628460919.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Steampunk aesthetics in the production design of Guy Ritchie’s 2009 film production of Sherlock Holmes and its sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) reinforces a burgeoning alliance ...
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Steampunk aesthetics in the production design of Guy Ritchie’s 2009 film production of Sherlock Holmes and its sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) reinforces a burgeoning alliance between steampunks and traditional Sherlockian fan cultures. This chapter explores how such a presentation of the character and world of Sherlock Holmes further popularlizes steampunk aesthetics for mass-market consumption and demonstrates the natural fit of a steampunk interpretation for this most popular of Victorian narratives.It also discusses how the film’s attraction for steampunks enthusiasts makes it a remix of the character and story for contemporary sensibilities rather than the more usual pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle’s style and voice that reinterpretations have so often been. Finally, it extrapolates that this process of “remix,” that is replicated across other literatures and their interpretations, might be the correct descriptor for the larger aesthetic and cultural movement of steampunk.Less
Steampunk aesthetics in the production design of Guy Ritchie’s 2009 film production of Sherlock Holmes and its sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) reinforces a burgeoning alliance between steampunks and traditional Sherlockian fan cultures. This chapter explores how such a presentation of the character and world of Sherlock Holmes further popularlizes steampunk aesthetics for mass-market consumption and demonstrates the natural fit of a steampunk interpretation for this most popular of Victorian narratives.It also discusses how the film’s attraction for steampunks enthusiasts makes it a remix of the character and story for contemporary sensibilities rather than the more usual pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle’s style and voice that reinterpretations have so often been. Finally, it extrapolates that this process of “remix,” that is replicated across other literatures and their interpretations, might be the correct descriptor for the larger aesthetic and cultural movement of steampunk.
Peter N. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780801453700
- eISBN:
- 9781501708244
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453700.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter considers the “material turn” in the latter half of the eighteenth century, particularly when the first academic curriculum for material culture studies was created. It happened at the ...
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This chapter considers the “material turn” in the latter half of the eighteenth century, particularly when the first academic curriculum for material culture studies was created. It happened at the University of Göttingen, a new foundation (from 1734, formal opening in 1737) that was envisioned as the model of an enlightened university, and was, during the last decades of the eighteenth century, an extraordinary hothouse for humanities research. With a professionalized training regimen for historians came the idea of required courses, and the auxiliary sciences of history were born. This curriculum lingered at Göttingen for a long time, though little effort has been made to study its development.Less
This chapter considers the “material turn” in the latter half of the eighteenth century, particularly when the first academic curriculum for material culture studies was created. It happened at the University of Göttingen, a new foundation (from 1734, formal opening in 1737) that was envisioned as the model of an enlightened university, and was, during the last decades of the eighteenth century, an extraordinary hothouse for humanities research. With a professionalized training regimen for historians came the idea of required courses, and the auxiliary sciences of history were born. This curriculum lingered at Göttingen for a long time, though little effort has been made to study its development.
Peter N. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780801453700
- eISBN:
- 9781501708244
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453700.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This concluding chapter emphasizes the importance of material culture studies, bringing up the differences between the laboratory and the library as sites of questioning. Where books or disciplines ...
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This concluding chapter emphasizes the importance of material culture studies, bringing up the differences between the laboratory and the library as sites of questioning. Where books or disciplines cut up knowledge in self-affirming and internally consistent ways, the world is indifferent to classroom categories. The gap between the two has been bridged by what we call “applied learning.” The chapter argues that our knowledge of the world will always remain incomplete, and maybe our sense of what constitutes knowledge itself will remain a little distorted, if we do not work from the world back to the books as often as we do from the books to the world. Thus teaching from objects, or landscapes, is a way of forcing an epistemological revolution.Less
This concluding chapter emphasizes the importance of material culture studies, bringing up the differences between the laboratory and the library as sites of questioning. Where books or disciplines cut up knowledge in self-affirming and internally consistent ways, the world is indifferent to classroom categories. The gap between the two has been bridged by what we call “applied learning.” The chapter argues that our knowledge of the world will always remain incomplete, and maybe our sense of what constitutes knowledge itself will remain a little distorted, if we do not work from the world back to the books as often as we do from the books to the world. Thus teaching from objects, or landscapes, is a way of forcing an epistemological revolution.
Arie L. Molendijk
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198784234
- eISBN:
- 9780191826832
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198784234.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions, Hinduism
The edition of the fifty massive volumes of the Sacred Books of the East (1879–1910) was one of the most ambitious and daring editorial projects of late Victorian scholarship. The German-born ...
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The edition of the fifty massive volumes of the Sacred Books of the East (1879–1910) was one of the most ambitious and daring editorial projects of late Victorian scholarship. The German-born philologist, orientalist, and religious scholar Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900) persuaded Oxford University Press to embark on this venture. ‘Müller’s grand design’ was supported financially by the India Office of the British empire and Oxford University Press. Müller resigned from his Oxford chair of comparative philology to become the general editor of this megaproject. He engaged an international team of renowned scholars (among whom James Legge, James Darmesteter, Hendrik Kern, Julius Eggeling, Thomas William Rhys Davids, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, and Hermann Oldenberg) to translate the ‘sacred texts’. The series used and defined categories of the study of culture, especially of religion. Religious studies was often called ‘comparative religion’ at the time, indicating the importance of the comparative method for this emerging discipline. The edition also contributed significantly to the Western perception of the ‘religious’ or even ‘mystic’ East, which was textually represented in English translations. This book is a study in intellectual history, in particular the history of the study of religions (1860–1900). A close reading of Müller’s work is combined with theoretical reflection on the defining moments in the making of the Sacred Books of the East series. The focus is on Max Müller’s conceptualization, management, and ambitions in bringing this grand project to a conclusion.Less
The edition of the fifty massive volumes of the Sacred Books of the East (1879–1910) was one of the most ambitious and daring editorial projects of late Victorian scholarship. The German-born philologist, orientalist, and religious scholar Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900) persuaded Oxford University Press to embark on this venture. ‘Müller’s grand design’ was supported financially by the India Office of the British empire and Oxford University Press. Müller resigned from his Oxford chair of comparative philology to become the general editor of this megaproject. He engaged an international team of renowned scholars (among whom James Legge, James Darmesteter, Hendrik Kern, Julius Eggeling, Thomas William Rhys Davids, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, and Hermann Oldenberg) to translate the ‘sacred texts’. The series used and defined categories of the study of culture, especially of religion. Religious studies was often called ‘comparative religion’ at the time, indicating the importance of the comparative method for this emerging discipline. The edition also contributed significantly to the Western perception of the ‘religious’ or even ‘mystic’ East, which was textually represented in English translations. This book is a study in intellectual history, in particular the history of the study of religions (1860–1900). A close reading of Müller’s work is combined with theoretical reflection on the defining moments in the making of the Sacred Books of the East series. The focus is on Max Müller’s conceptualization, management, and ambitions in bringing this grand project to a conclusion.
Daniel Miller and Sophie Woodward
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520272187
- eISBN:
- 9780520952089
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520272187.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Global
This introductory chapter presents an overview of this book's study, which intends to advance contemporary material culture studies. It draws on interviews and observations of how people select and ...
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This introductory chapter presents an overview of this book's study, which intends to advance contemporary material culture studies. It draws on interviews and observations of how people select and wear blue jeans in order to create a theory of the ordinary and its place in social science. This theory of the ordinary has major consequences for topics ranging from immigration to questions of identity, equality, and the routine. The inspiration behind this sequence lies in Claude Lévi-Strauss's exhortation to anthropologists to rethink the limits of their enterprise by considering the discipline to be a kind of philosophy by other means. Moreover, Lévi-Strauss's contention can be extended to the enterprise of many other social sciences, and his sentiment finds support in writings from very different traditions, which acknowledge that the seemingly mundane and routine are clues to the profound.Less
This introductory chapter presents an overview of this book's study, which intends to advance contemporary material culture studies. It draws on interviews and observations of how people select and wear blue jeans in order to create a theory of the ordinary and its place in social science. This theory of the ordinary has major consequences for topics ranging from immigration to questions of identity, equality, and the routine. The inspiration behind this sequence lies in Claude Lévi-Strauss's exhortation to anthropologists to rethink the limits of their enterprise by considering the discipline to be a kind of philosophy by other means. Moreover, Lévi-Strauss's contention can be extended to the enterprise of many other social sciences, and his sentiment finds support in writings from very different traditions, which acknowledge that the seemingly mundane and routine are clues to the profound.
