Historical Turns: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of HistoricismHistorical Turns reassesses Weimar cinema in light of the "crisis of historicism" widely diagnosed by German philosophers in the early twentieth century. Through bold new analyses of five legendary works of German silent cinema—The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Destiny, Rhythm 21, The Holy Mountain, and Metropolis—Nicholas Baer argues that films of the Weimar Republic lent vivid expression to the crisis of historical thinking. With their experiments in cinematic form and style, these modernist films revealed the capacity of the medium to engage with fundamental questions about the philosophy of history. Reconstructing the debates over historicism that unfolded during the initial decades of moving-image culture, Historical Turns proposes a more reflexive mode of historiography and expands the field of film and media philosophy. The book excavates a rich archive of ideas that illuminate our own moment of rapid media transformation and political, economic, and environmental crises around the globe. |
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absolute films Adorno aesthetic Amsterdam University Press argued artistic avant-garde Béla Balázs Berkeley Berlin California Press Caligari to Hitler Cambridge century Chicago Christian concept contemporary crisis of historicism critical critique Culture death debates Der müde Tod Destiny Dialectic Dilthey early edited Ernst Troeltsch Essays Expressionism Expressionist Fanck's Film History Film Theory film's filmic Frankfurt am Main Friedrich Fritz genre Georg Georg Lukács Geschichte Hans Richter Harvard University Press Heidegger historical film historicism historicist historiography human interwar Jacques Rancičre Kaes Karl Lang’s Lang's film London Media Archaeology medium Metropolis Minnesota Press mode modern narrative nature Nicholas Baer Nietzsche Oxford Panofsky past perspectivism Photography political Princeton University Press Promise of Cinema Rancičre reality Richter Routledge Science Siegfried Kracauer Simmel Suhrkamp temporal Theodor Theodor W Theory of Film tion trans Translated University of California visual Walter Benjamin Weimar Cinema Weimar Culture Weimar Republic Werke Wilhelm writings York