Werner Herzog and the Contemporary Philosophy of Cinema
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Pan, David T.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2019
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Body granting the degree
Pan, David T.
Text preceding or following the note
2019
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
In his central mission of working on "a new grammar of images," the German film director Werner Herzog presents a challenge to the philosophy of cinema. Pairing Herzog's work with Deleuzian film theory, I argue against the prevalent secondary literature that Herzog's oeuvre engages with an anti-romantic and non-ironic material philosophy in order to provide ethical challenges to a contemporary, connected world. Specifically focusing on spatiotemporal formations derived from empirical science, I demonstrate that Herzog's approach to cinema utilizes a four-tiered semiotic that is at its core not merely a film theory, but rather an entire material philosophy of nature with profound ethical and political implications.