'Vengeance is Mine': Heroes from the Movie-Powerhouse of Emotions

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 2015
Journal Aesthetic Investigations
Volume | Issue number 1 | 1
Pages (from-to) 145-155
Number of pages 11
Organisations
  • Faculty of Humanities (FGw) - Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) - Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
Abstract
In this text I am guided by an interest in cinema as a well-understood machine of emotions which creates a common sense. From this perspective I approach the subject matter of heroism, using the emotions linked to vengeance as a connection between heroism and the cinematic production of common sense. In so doing, I put forward several theses for discussion: that film - like art in general - is a medium which founds community; that such a founding of community essentially occurs via the dimensions of emotion, in our case the dimension of a specific aesthetic emotion; that the hero is a figure emerging from the founding of community; and, finally, that feelings of vengeance - like figures of heroism - are made present in cinema in a representative way.
Document type Article
Language English
Published at http://www.aestheticinvestigations.eu/index.php/journal/article/view/39
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