The Long Century's Long Shadow: Weimar Cinema and the Romantic Modern

The author investigates different moments and media as connected phenomena, situated at alternate ends of the long nineteenth century but joined by their mutual rejection of the neo-classical aesthetic standard of placid and weightless poise in numerous media, including film, painting, sculpture, prose, poetry, and dance. Connecting Weimar filmmaking to Romantic thought and practice, Kenneth S. Calhoon offers a non-technological, aesthetic genealogy of cinema. He focuses on well-known literary and artistic works, including films such as Nosferatu, Metropolis, Frankenstein, and Fantasia; the writings of Conrad, Kafka, Goethe, and Novalis; and the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, one of the leading artists of German Romanticism.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 25 June 2021
Publisher: University of Toronto Press

German Romanticism and Weimar cinema are seen as continuous developments by The Long Centurys Long Shadow, which casts them both in a narrative of reciprocal illumination. The author looks at various times and media as related phenomena that are situated at opposing ends of the long nineteenth century but are linked by their shared rejection of the neo-classical aesthetic standard of calm and weightless poise in a variety of media, including film, painting, sculpture, prose, poetry, and dance. Kenneth S. Calhoon provides a non-technological, aesthetic genealogy of cinema that connects Weimar filmmaking to Romantic thought and practice. He focuses on well-known literary and artistic works, including films such as Nosferatu, Metropolis, Frankenstein, and Fantasia; the writings of Conrad, Kafka, Goethe, and Novalis; and the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, one of the leading artists of German Romanticism. The Romantic landscape in poetry and painting is used by The Long Centurys Long Shadow as a mirror in which to view cinema with an eye to modernism, of which Weimar filmmaking was a part.

German Romanticism and Weimar cinema are seen as continuous developments by The Long Centurys Long Shadow, which casts them both in a narrative of reciprocal illumination. The author looks at various times and media as related phenomena that are situated at opposing ends of the long nineteenth century but are linked by their shared rejection of the neo-classical aesthetic standard of calm and weightless poise in a variety of media, including film, painting, sculpture, prose, poetry, and dance. Kenneth S. Calhoon provides a non-technological, aesthetic genealogy of cinema that connects Weimar filmmaking to Romantic thought and practice. He focuses on well-known literary and artistic works, including films such as Nosferatu, Metropolis, Frankenstein, and Fantasia; the writings of Conrad, Kafka, Goethe, and Novalis; and the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, one of the leading artists of German Romanticism. The Romantic landscape in poetry and painting is used by The Long Centurys Long Shadow as a mirror in which to view cinema with an eye to modernism, of which Weimar filmmaking was a part.

Weight: 604g
Dimension: 243 x 165 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781487526955