Death in Classic and Contemporary Film Fade to Black

by Sullivan, Daniel; Greenberg, Jeff

• ISBN13: 9781137276889
• ISBN10: 1137276886
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-10-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Mortality is a recurrent theme in films across genres, periods, nations, and directors. This book brings together an accomplished set of authors with backgrounds in film analysis, psychology, and philosophy to examine how the knowledge of death, the fear of our mortality, and the ways people cope with mortality are represented in cinema.

Author Biography

Daniel Sullivan is Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Arizona, USA. He is the co-author of many research articles and book chapters on topics ranging from psychology to film and literature.

Jeff Greenberg is Professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona, USA, and is President of the International Society for Self and Identity. He is one of the co-creators of terror management theory, the co-author of many scientific articles and chapters, and the co-author of In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror, Hanging on and Letting Go, and The Worm at the Core.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: When the Lights Go Down; Daniel Sullivan and Jeff Greenberg
PART I: TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY AND FILM
2. A Terror Management Analysis of Films from Four Genres: The Matrix, Life is Beautiful, Iron Man 2, and Ikiru; Jeff Greenberg and Alisabeth Ayars
3. Mortality Salience in Apocalyptic Films; Joel Lieberman and Mark Fergus
PART II: ASPECTS OF DEATH DENIAL IN INDIVIDUAL FILMS AND GENRES
4. Little Murders: Cultural Animals in an Existential Age; Sheldon Solomon and Mark J. Landau
5. Icons of Stone and Steel: Death, Cinema, and the Future of Emotion; Jennifer L. McMahon
6. Consumed in the Act: Grizzly Man and Frankenstein; Kirby Farrell
7. Black Swan/White Swan: On Female Objectification, Creatureliness, and Death Denial; Jamie L. Goldenberg
8. Death, Wealth, and Guilt: An Analysis of There Will be Blood; Daniel Sullivan
9. The Birth and Death of the Superhero Film; Sander L. Koole, Daniel Fockenberg, Mattie Tops, and Iris K. Schneider
PART III: DIRECTORS ENGAGING WITH DEATH
10. Bergman and the Switching off of Lights; Peter Cowie
11. Death in the Films of Stanley Kubrick; Susan White
12. Haneke's Amour and the Ethics of Dying; Asbjørn Grønstad
PART IV: THE PROSPECT OF TRANSCENDENCE
13. Visions of Death: Native American Cinema and the Transformative Power of Death; Jennifer L. McMahon
14. From Despair and Fanaticism to Awe: A Post-traumatic Growth Perspective on Cinematic HorrorL; Kirk J. Schneider
15. Conclusion: Cinematic Death Benefits; Daniel Sullivan and Jeff Greenberg