25 October 2013

Dr Daniel Yacavone, University of Edinburgh

Film Worlds: Beyond Words?

Abstract

Since the 18th century, philosophers, literary theorists and other scholars have sought to define and describe the particular sort of 'world' created by works of art and literature. As relating to past and current research interests (and overlapping with key themes of the Edge of Words initiative) I will discuss some of the resulting conceptions of work worlds as they relate to narrative cinema. A new model of the 'world-of' a film (or 'film world') as distinct from, yet encompassing, the fictional 'world-in' a film, will be forwarded as a way to synthesise and yet move beyond these traditional views, opening up new ways of thinking about cinematic art in the process.