Mario Slugan - Böcker

Noël Carroll is one of the most prolific, widely-cited and distinguished philosophers of art, but how, specifically, has cinema impacted his thought? This book, one of the first in the acclaimed 'Film Thinks' series, argues that Carroll's background in both cinema and philosophy has been crucial to his overall theory of aesthetics. Often a controversial figure within film studies, as someone who has assertively contested the psychoanalytic, semiotic and Marxist cornerstones of the field, his allegiance to alternative philosophical traditions has similarly polarised his readership.Mario Slugan proposes that Carroll's defence of the notions of truth and objectivity provides a welcome antidote to 'anything goes' attitudes and postmodern scepticism towards art and popular culture, including film. Carroll's thinking has loosened the grip of continental philosophers on cinema studies - from Maurice Merleau-Ponty to Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Lacan - by turning to cognitive and analytical approaches. Slugan goes further to reveal that Carroll's methods of evaluation and interpretation in fact, usefully bridge gaps between these `opposing' sides, to look at artworks anew. Throughout, Slugan revisits and enriches Carroll's definitions of popular art, mass art, horror, humour and other topics and concludes by tracing their origins to this important thinker's relationship with the medium of cinema.

Runner-up of Best Edited Collection at the 2023 BAFTSS AwardsIn this book, editors Mario Slugan and Daniël Biltereyst present a theoretical reconceptualization of early cinema. To do so, they highlight the latest methods and tools for analysis, and cast new light on the experience of early cinema through the application of these concepts and methods.The international host of contributors evaluate examples of early cinema across the globe, including The May Irwin Kiss (1896), Un homme de têtes (1900), The Terrible Turkish Executioner (1904) and Tom Tom the Piper’s Son (1905). In doing so, they address the periodization of the era, emphasizing the recent boon in the availability of primary materials, the rise of digital technologies, the developments in new cinema history, and the persistence of some conceptualizations as key incentives for rethinking early cinema in theoretical and methodological terms. They go on to highlight cutting-edge approaches to the study of early cinema, including the use of the Mediathread Platform, the formation of new datasets with the help of digital technologies, and exploring the early era in non-western cultures. Finally, the contributors revisit early cinema audiences and exhibition contexts by investigating some of the earliest screenings in Denmark and the US, exploring the details of black cinema going in Harlem, and examining exhibition practices in Germany.

Shortlisted for the BAFTSS 'Best Monograph' Award 2021When watching the latest instalment of Batman, it is perfectly normal to say that we see Batman fighting Bane or that we see Bruce Wayne making love to Miranda Tate. We would not say that we see Christian Bale dressed up as Batman going through the motions of punching Tom Hardy dressed up us Bane. Nor do we say that we see Christian Bale pretending to be Bruce Wayne making love with Marion Cotillard, who is playacting the role Miranda Tate. But if we look at the history of cinema and consider contemporary reviews from the early days of the medium, we see that people thought precisely in this way about early film. They spoke of film as no more than documentary recordings of actors performing on set. In an innovative combination of philosophical aesthetics and new cinema history, Mario Slugan investigates how our default imaginative engagement with film changed over the first two decades of cinema. It addresses not only the importance of imagination for the understanding of early cinema but also contributes to our understanding of what it means for a representational medium to produce fictions. Specifically, Slugan argues that cinema provides a better model for understanding fiction than literature.

In this book, editors Mario Slugan and Daniël Biltereyst present a theoretical reconceptualization of early cinema. To do so, they highlight the latest methods and tools for analysis, and cast new light on the experience of early cinema through the application of these concepts and methods.The international host of contributors evaluate examples of early cinema across the globe, including The May Irwin Kiss (1896), Un homme de têtes (1900), The Terrible Turkish Executioner (1904) and Tom Tom the Piper’s Son (1905). In doing so, they address the periodization of the era, emphasizing the recent boon in the availability of primary materials, the rise of digital technologies, the developments in new cinema history, and the persistence of some conceptualizations as key incentives for rethinking early cinema in theoretical and methodological terms. They go on to highlight cutting-edge approaches to the study of early cinema, including the use of the Mediathread Platform, the formation of new datasets with the help of digital technologies, and exploring the early era in non-western cultures. Finally, the contributors revisit early cinema audiences and exhibition contexts by investigating some of the earliest screenings in Denmark and the US, exploring the details of black cinema going in Harlem, and examining exhibition practices in Germany.

Fiction film has been and remains the privileged site of film studies, with film history regularly being viewed as the rise of the narrative fiction film. Taking Fiction Film Seriously argues that despite this privileged position, the notion of fiction as it relates to cinema, has yet to be properly interrogated. Mario Slugan explores the significant misunderstandings concerning the categorisation of film, audience experience, and the real-life effects of fiction. He contends with the contradictory assumption that fiction films have tangible effects on audiences' beliefs and behaviours, while also intuitively being 'not true' or not to be believed in. Slugan analyses the notion of 'fiction' from a theoretical and historical perspective, considering how it manifests in a broad range of films from the past 130 years, including The Arrival of a Train (Lumière brothers, 1895-1897), The Blair Witch Project (Myrick and Sánchez, 1999), and Waltz with Bashir (Folman, 2008). He supports his close readings with findings from philosophy, psychology, and literary studies, and in doing so seeks to challenge the current state of film studies.

Fiction film has been and remains the privileged site of film studies, with film history regularly being viewed as the rise of the narrative fiction film. Taking Fiction Film Seriously argues that despite this privileged position, the notion of fiction as it relates to cinema, has yet to be properly interrogated. Mario Slugan explores the significant misunderstandings concerning the categorisation of film, audience experience, and the real-life effects of fiction. He contends with the contradictory assumption that fiction films have tangible effects on audiences' beliefs and behaviours, while also intuitively being 'not true' or not to be believed in. Slugan analyses the notion of 'fiction' from a theoretical and historical perspective, considering how it manifests in a broad range of films from the past 110 years, including The Arrival of a Train (Lumière brothers, 1895-1897), The Blair Witch Project (Myrick and Sánchez, 1999), and Waltz with Bashir (Folman, 2008). He supports his close readings with findings from philosophy, psychology, and literary studies, and in doing so seeks to challenge the current state of film studies.

The first book to treat both Döblin's novel and the film adaptations of it, which it does while also articulating theories of literary and film montage.Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz and its film adaptations by Jutzi and Fassbinder are canonical works of literature and cinema, and yet there is no monograph that treats all three. This omission is even more striking since Döblin's novel is seen as the most famous example of literary appropriation of film montage aesthetics. Mario Slugan addresses this glaring oversight by considering montage in experiential, historic, stylistic, and narratological terms. Starting from the novel argument that montage is best understood as a perceptual experience rather than as a juxtaposition of meaning, Slugan proposes that it was the perceived experiential similarity with Dada photomontage and Soviet montage films rather than any semantic contrast that made contemporary critics identify Berlin Alexanderplatz as the first novel to appropriate film montage. It was the perceived relative absence of montage in the filmings of the novel, moreover, that significantly contributed to their contemporary dismissals as failed adaptations. Slugan argues that both Jutzi's and Fassbinder's films nevertheless present innovative types ofboth visual and sound montage. These, in turn, allow for the articulation of medium-specific traits of film montage as opposed to those of literary montage, including the organization of time and space, the use of ready-made material, and the relation of montage to the figure of the narrator.Mario Slugan is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Fellow at the Centre for Cinema and Media Studies, Ghent University.

Noël Carroll is one of the most prolific, widely-cited and distinguished philosophers of art, but how, specifically, has cinema impacted his thought? This book, one of the first in the acclaimed 'Film Thinks' series, argues that Carroll's background in both cinema and philosophy has been crucial to his overall theory of aesthetics. Often a controversial figure within film studies, as someone who has assertively contested the psychoanalytic, semiotic and Marxist cornerstones of the field, his allegiance to alternative philosophical traditions has similarly polarised his readership.Mario Slugan proposes that Carroll's defence of the notions of truth and objectivity provides a welcome antidote to 'anything goes' attitudes and postmodern scepticism towards art and popular culture, including film. Carroll's thinking has loosened the grip of continental philosophers on cinema studies - from Maurice Merleau-Ponty to Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Lacan - by turning to cognitive and analytical approaches. Slugan goes further to reveal that Carroll's methods of evaluation and interpretation in fact, usefully bridge gaps between these `opposing' sides, to look at artworks anew. Throughout, Slugan revisits and enriches Carroll's definitions of popular art, mass art, horror, humour and other topics and concludes by tracing their origins to this important thinker's relationship with the medium of cinema.