Jonathan Amos

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Langston, Douglas

Keywords

Deleuze, Gilles, Cinema, Ethics

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the importance of cinema in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. His two volumes of Cinema define modern cinema by the appearance of a new image: the time-image. This appearance, according to Deleuze, is not only a result of innovation within the cinematic art-form, but evidence of humanity's loss of belief in this world. What does it mean to believe in this world? This question will be answered in this study by an interrogation of how cinema can, and must, restore our lost belief. What will become evident, however, is that this imperative is not relegated only to cinema. To believe in this world is an ethical and political imperative present throughout Deleuze's philosophy, in his earlier works on Nietzsche and Spinoza as well as his collaboration with Felix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus. Deleuze's philosophy is increasingly becoming an inspiration to contemporary artists and theorists, such as Michaelangelo Frammartino in his film Le Quattro Volte. Thinking through the immanent possibilities of this film reveals its capacity to restore our belief in the world. This is what cinema must do, because we are not yet thinking of the immanent possibilities of our own bodies, of humanity, or of life itself.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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