Christopher Nolan
Filmmaker and Philosopher
1st Edition
Published on 4. November 2021
200 pages
978-1-350-13998-5 (ISBN)
Description
Christopher Nolan is the writer and director of Hollywood blockbusters like The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, and also of arthouse films like Memento and Inception. Underlying his staggering commercial success however, is a darker sensibility that questions the veracity of human knowledge, the allure of appearance over reality and the latent disorder in contemporary society.
This appreciation of the sinister owes a huge debt to philosophy and especially modern thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Derrida. Taking a thematic approach to Nolan's oeuvre, Robbie Goh examines how the director's postmodern inclinations manifest themselves in non-linearity, causal agnosticism, the threat of social anarchy and the frequent use of the mise en abyme, while running counter to these are narratives of heroism, moral responsibility and the dignity of human choice. For Goh, Nolan is a 'reluctant postmodernist'. His films reflect the cynicism of the modern world, but with their representation of heroic moral triumphs, they also resist it.
This appreciation of the sinister owes a huge debt to philosophy and especially modern thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Derrida. Taking a thematic approach to Nolan's oeuvre, Robbie Goh examines how the director's postmodern inclinations manifest themselves in non-linearity, causal agnosticism, the threat of social anarchy and the frequent use of the mise en abyme, while running counter to these are narratives of heroism, moral responsibility and the dignity of human choice. For Goh, Nolan is a 'reluctant postmodernist'. His films reflect the cynicism of the modern world, but with their representation of heroic moral triumphs, they also resist it.
More details
Series
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN-13
978-1-350-13998-5 (9781350139985)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
12/2021
Bloomsbury Academic
€106.66
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Robbie B. H. Goh is Professor of Literature in the department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore. His research interests are Diaspora Studies, Indian Anglophone Literature, Christianity in Asia, the Bible and Literature/Popular Culture, Late Nineteenth Century English Literature, and Speculative Fiction.
Content
1. Christopher Nolan as Philosophical Filmmaker: Themes and Influences
2. Postmodernism and Cynicism
3. The Moral Turn: Against Postmodernism
4. Nolan's Heroes as Philosophers
5. Film Narrative and/as Philosophy
2. Postmodernism and Cynicism
3. The Moral Turn: Against Postmodernism
4. Nolan's Heroes as Philosophers
5. Film Narrative and/as Philosophy
