عنوان

G. W. F. Hegel and the myth of total cinematic genius

Number

TLets576712

Title Proper

G. W. F. Hegel and the myth of total cinematic genius

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Fitzsimons, Edward James

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Manchester Metropolitan University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2012

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Manchester Metropolitan University

Text preceding or following the note

2012

Text of Note

Since the early 1950s the concept of the individual cinematic genius has been widely accepted as a legitimate status of the successful auteur, and its most renowned advocates have been Cahiers du Cinema of that period - 'the age of the auteur'. Despite being historically questioned and refuted by the other arts of the last century the concept of the genius auteur has survived the 'linguistic turn' of the 1960s and 1970s, and has since been maintained most prominently in the figure of Alfred Hitchcock. The thesis discusses the ways in which historical constructions of genius have been justified by outlining how the concept itself has evolved from notions of divinity prior to the invention of cinema as an art form, to the politicized terms of its contemporary use. Of particular import to this study is Cahiers du Cinema's early justification of cinematic genius that the thesis proves reducible to their understanding of G. W. F. Hegel's philosophy. However, developing an understanding of Hegel' s philosophical texts only serves to further undermine the concept of individual genius revealing a paradox, in that Hegel himself refuted the idea of the singular divinely gifted individual in his Phenomenology of Spirit 1807. The thesis' in-depth analysis of the relationship between genius, cinema and philosophy, through the new lens of Film-Philosophy, shows the concept of the genius auteur to be in many ways inconsistent with the source of its original philosophical justification in Hegel; and incompatible with the very collective nature of a true science of knowledge. In response to this the thesis illustrates the suitability of the critical tenets of Film- Philosophy in confirming the hypothesis that film can philosophise, and can do so autonomously in the sense that it already holds the philosophical ideas within its final product. In investigating the 'myth of total cinematic genius' from this Hegelian perspective against a variety of ancient and historical cultures and beliefs, the thesis' initial study develops the sense in which the signifier genius has evolved from its etymological roots and focuses on its subsequent politicisations. The second study is a more complex

Fitzsimons, Edward James

Manchester Metropolitan University

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y