Iconoclasm in European Cinema: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Image Destruction

Iconoclasm in European Cinema: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Image Destruction is the first full-length study on iconoclasm and cinema, combining ancient philosophy, medieval theology, and contemporary film and image theory. It explores the relationship between a disruptive aesthetics and its ethical potential, investigating the dichotomy between eik?n and eid?lon and tracing a thread from Plato's philosophy to contemporary films. The book argues that cinematic iconoclasm can produce an ethics of (in)visibility by questioning the limits of our right to see and show something on a screen.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 31 July 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

The first full-length study on iconoclasm and cinema, this groundbreaking work brings together ancient philosophy, medieval theology, and contemporary film and image theory to offer a new, interdisciplinary approach to film ethics. By examining anti-mimetic images and sounds, the book explores the relationship between a disruptive aesthetics and its ethical potential, establishing a dialogue between the philosophical distrust in visual images and the breaking of mimesis in cinema. Moreover, it delves into the dichotomy between two types of images fundamental for philosophical and Christian iconoclasm: the eik?n and eid?lon, tracing a thread from Plato's philosophy up to contemporary films. Exploring anti-mimesis and image destruction in Western European films, Iconoclasm in European Cinema: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Image Destruction offers the first comprehensive study of philosophical iconoclasm in the cinema. Drawing on continental philosophy of the image, medieval theology, and recent developments in film ethics, the book investigates the aesthetic and ethical significance of destroying certain film images, both literally (via damages to the filmstrip) and metaphorically (through blank screens, altered motion, and disruptive sounds). Analysing the work of various filmmakers, the book considers iconoclastic gestures against the film image's ability to mimetically represent contents on the verge of the invisible and the ineffable. This book demonstrates that the overlooked issue of iconoclasm in film is essential for understanding contemporary attitudes towards images and argues that cinematic iconoclasm can produce an ethics of (in)visibility by questioning the limits of our right to see and show something on a screen.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474494458