Stanley Cavell and the Magic of Hollywood Films / / Daniel Shaw.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Complete eBook-Package 2019
• VerfasserIn: Shaw, Daniel,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (176 p.) :; 15 B/W illustrations

An in-depth study of the philosophy of film of Stanley Cavell, and of his philosophical influencesIncludes extensive "es from Cavell’s writingsAnalyses the influence of Existentialism on CavellDiscusses how Emerson and Thoreau provide a distinctively American philosophical foundation for great Hollywood filmsOne of America’s most important contemporary thinkers, Stanley Cavell’s remarkable film philosophy proposed that the greatest Hollywood films reflect the struggle to become who we really are – a struggle that is foregrounded in the characteristically American theory of Emersonian perfectionism. Focusing on his account of what makes Hollywood movies so magical, Dan Shaw draws on Cavell’s theories to interpret a range of classic and contemporary dramas, including Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Boys Don’t Cry (1999) and The Hurt Locker (2008). Pairing of these analyses with discussions of Cavell’s precursors, including Emerson, Nietzsche and Mill, the book explores a distinctively American philosophical foundation for the study of Hollywood film.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- 1. Introduction: Defining the Magic—Why Stanley Cavell? -- 2. Projecting Reality -- 3. Stanley Cavell: Emersonian Individualist -- 4. Cavell on Nietzsche: The Ascetic Ideal, Eternal Recurrence, and “Higher Self” -- 5. Comedies of Remarriage and the Transfiguration of the Commonplace -- 6. How the Unknown Woman Finds her Voice in Contesting Tears -- 7. Cavell and Wittgenstein on Skepticism: Redeeming the Law -- 8. Heidegger, Cavell, and Woody Allen: Another Woman -- 9. Halls of Montezuma and the Utility of War -- 10. Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, and Selma -- 11. Lockean Liberalism and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington -- 12. Cavell’s Notion of Acknowledgment and Boys Don’t Cry -- References -- Index