Minerva's Night Out : Philosophy, Pop Culture, and Moving Pictures (Paperback)

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Philosophy and the Popular Arts 1

Section I The Philosophy of Mass Art 7

1 The Ontology of Mass Art 9

2 Modernity and the Plasticity of Perception 29

3 The Ties that Bind: Characters, the Emotions, and Popular Fictions 40

4 Character, Social Information, and the Challenge of Psychology 64

Section II The Philosophy of Motion Pictures 83

5 Movies, the Moral Emotions, and Sympathy 85

6 The Problem with Movie Stars 106

7 Cinematic Narrative 122

8 Cinematic Narration 133

9 Psychoanalysis and the Horror Film 145

Section III Philosophy and Popular Film 159

10 Philosophical Insight, Emotion, and Popular Fiction: The Case of Sunset Boulevard 161

11 Vertigo and the Pathologies of Romantic Love 183

12 What Mr Creosote Knows about Laughter 194

13 Memento and the Phenomenology of Comprehending Motion Picture Narration 203

Section IV Philosophy and Popular TV 221

14 Tales of Dread in The Twilight Zone: A Contribution to Narratology 223

15 Sympathy for Soprano 234

16 Consuming Passion: Sex and the City 247

Section V Philosophy on Broadway 267

17 Art and Friendship 269

18 Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, or The Justification of Literature 276

Section VI Philosophy across Popular Culture 289

19 The Fear of Fear Itself: The Philosophy of Halloween 291

20 The Grotesque Today: Preliminary Notes toward a Taxonomy 302

21 Andy Kaufman and the Philosophy of Interpretation 324

Index 348