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Stringer, Michael

University of British Columbia

In the subdiscipline of film studies that researches the relationship between films and philosophy, there is a longstanding debate about how to understand this relationship. Often articulated as an issue of film’s ability to ‘do’ philosophy, this debate questions whether film can contribute significant content to the field of philosophy, rather than merely acting as an example of pre-existing philosophical work. Those who defend film’s philosophical capacity often rely on the concept of cinematic thinking to do so. If films can be said to think, then the leap to philosophy is not far behind. However, even with considerable development of this concept, the debate between film and philosophy remains ongoing. As another way into this debate, this thesis develops the alternative concept of enactment by drawing from scholars like Daniel Frampton, Robert Sinnerbrink, and Stephen Mulhall. These scholars describe film’s philosophizing in active terms, sometimes claiming the films can enact philosophy. However, this concept is often overshadowed by cinematic thinking, leaving it vague and underdeveloped. To gain a better understanding of what enacting philosophy entails, this thesis analyses how the concept of enactment is already used in other philosophical works. Scholars like Nicholas Wolterstorff and Ashon T. Crawley study ritualistic religious practices as enactments that produce philosophically interesting results. By turning to these philosophers, a specifically cinematic understating of enactments is developed by comparison. Additionally, this thesis considers two case studies, Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust and Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon. Both films illustrate divergent features of cinematic enactments, building a complex understanding of this concept. Through close attention to each film’s formal construction, a focus on enactments shows how films build a philosophical dialogue in their arrangement of formal features.

Text

2022-08-30

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82593

Cinema and Media Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/