Signifying Nothing? Nihilism, Violence, and the Sound/Silence Dynamic in Cinema
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Joseph G. Kickasola
Abstract
What does sound have to do with violence and nihilism? Inspired by Nietzsche, some philosophers believe this particular nexus forms a critical dynamic of reality. It also provides a site for an investigation of the sound and silence as a meaningful dynamic in cinema. In approaching it, there are two common interpretations of the experience of sound/silence dynamic: silence as ‘cessation’ and silence as ‘receptivity.’ I attend to the sonic experience in cinema, seeking to discover if and how sound plays a role in our feeling and experience of nihilism and violence. This essay argues that, if we are to approach a full phenomenology of sound and silence, we should realize that the cessation approach holds explanatory power, but is ultimately insufficient without receptivity. It details how the power manifest in a variety of film examples at the nexus of sound and violence might be characterized as nihilistic, generally speaking. However, additional examples suggest the viability and necessity of the receptivity thesis, which needs more precise articulation, both in its own identity and posture as well as its relationship to cessation.
Abstract
What does sound have to do with violence and nihilism? Inspired by Nietzsche, some philosophers believe this particular nexus forms a critical dynamic of reality. It also provides a site for an investigation of the sound and silence as a meaningful dynamic in cinema. In approaching it, there are two common interpretations of the experience of sound/silence dynamic: silence as ‘cessation’ and silence as ‘receptivity.’ I attend to the sonic experience in cinema, seeking to discover if and how sound plays a role in our feeling and experience of nihilism and violence. This essay argues that, if we are to approach a full phenomenology of sound and silence, we should realize that the cessation approach holds explanatory power, but is ultimately insufficient without receptivity. It details how the power manifest in a variety of film examples at the nexus of sound and violence might be characterized as nihilistic, generally speaking. However, additional examples suggest the viability and necessity of the receptivity thesis, which needs more precise articulation, both in its own identity and posture as well as its relationship to cessation.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- List of Abbreviations VII
- Introduction 1
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Part 1: Philosophy and Politics
- Nihilism and Violence from Plato to Arendt 5
- Kierkegaard’s Aesthetic Stage and the Ideology of Nihilism 25
- “To smear his boots with the other’s fat”: Conscious and Unconscious Violence 45
- Cruelty, Bad Conscience, and the Sovereign Individual in Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality 65
- Walter Benjamin’s Media Theory in the Times of Platform Nihilism 89
- ‘Like ants’: The Mafia’s Necropolitics as a Paradigm of Nihilistic Violence 111
- Against the Kinship: State, Terror, Nihilism 139
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Part 2: Literature and Film
- Nihilism in Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature and Thought 159
- Violence, Evil and Nihilism: Nietzschean Traces in Guimarães Rosa’s Grande Sertão: Veredas 189
- Signifying Nothing? Nihilism, Violence, and the Sound/Silence Dynamic in Cinema 203
- Aestheticizing Murder: Hitchcock’s Rope, Nietzsche, and the Alleged Right to Crime of Superior Individuals 231
- Nihilism, Violence, and the Films of Michael Haneke 255
- “Supposing Truth is a Woman?”: Nihilism and Violence in Nietzsche’s The Antichrist and Von Trier’s Antichrist 275
- “Is Something Funny, Asshole?”: Joker’s Nihilist Violence 297
- Notes on the Contributors 315
- Names index 319
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- List of Abbreviations VII
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1: Philosophy and Politics
- Nihilism and Violence from Plato to Arendt 5
- Kierkegaard’s Aesthetic Stage and the Ideology of Nihilism 25
- “To smear his boots with the other’s fat”: Conscious and Unconscious Violence 45
- Cruelty, Bad Conscience, and the Sovereign Individual in Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality 65
- Walter Benjamin’s Media Theory in the Times of Platform Nihilism 89
- ‘Like ants’: The Mafia’s Necropolitics as a Paradigm of Nihilistic Violence 111
- Against the Kinship: State, Terror, Nihilism 139
-
Part 2: Literature and Film
- Nihilism in Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature and Thought 159
- Violence, Evil and Nihilism: Nietzschean Traces in Guimarães Rosa’s Grande Sertão: Veredas 189
- Signifying Nothing? Nihilism, Violence, and the Sound/Silence Dynamic in Cinema 203
- Aestheticizing Murder: Hitchcock’s Rope, Nietzsche, and the Alleged Right to Crime of Superior Individuals 231
- Nihilism, Violence, and the Films of Michael Haneke 255
- “Supposing Truth is a Woman?”: Nihilism and Violence in Nietzsche’s The Antichrist and Von Trier’s Antichrist 275
- “Is Something Funny, Asshole?”: Joker’s Nihilist Violence 297
- Notes on the Contributors 315
- Names index 319
