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The mobilization of emotions in war films (111)

This project explores the composition of emotions in Hollywood war films. We seek to develop a standard method to analyse the relations between cinematic audiovisual forms and the patterns in which emotions are evoked through the media.

The Hollywood war film serves as a prime example for the strategic use of audiovisual means to mobilize emotions, which in turn can be systematically described and analysed. The viewer's perceptive and affective experience may be sorted out into audiovisual units of expressive movement. The development of a standard method of analysis is central to the project, allowing a verifiable reconstruction and description of aesthetic strategies.

In the first stage we distinguished standard scenes of affect-oriented dramaturgy in Hollywood war films (pathos scenes of the genre). Based on this categorization the standard scenes in each examined film are extracted and their immanent structure and dramatic arrangement are described as well as the primary patterns of affective experience formed by their aesthetic arrangement. This qualitative medial research is carried out in an advanced IT-infrastructure specifically developed for and by this project.

By systematically investigating the affective dimension of film perception, this project develops essential methodological models and tools for empirical interdisciplinary studies of emotional mobilization via media content. Therefore it provides related fields of research with a useful approach for analysing audio visually organized emotions.

Publications

Kappelhoff, H. (2012, Im Druck). Kalkulierte Raserei. Der Zorn des Rekruten im Kriegsfilm. Zill, R. (Ed.). Von Achilles bis Zidane. Zur Genealogie des Zorns. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.

Grotkopp, M., Kappelhoff, H. (2012). Film Genre and Modality. The Incestuous Nature of Genre Exemplified by the War Film. Lefait, S., Ortoli, P. (Eds.). In Praise of Cinematic Bastardy. 29-39. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Kappelhoff, H. (2012). "Sense of Community": Die filmische Komposition eines moralischen Gefühls. Fauth, S. R., Green Krejberg, K., Süselbeck, J. (Eds.). Repräsentationen des Krieges. Emotionalisierungsstrategien in der Literatur und in den audiovisuellen Medien vom 18. bis zum 21. Jahrhundert. 43-57. Göttingen: Wallstein.

Grotkopp, M. (2011). Film genre and modality. The incestuous nature of genre exemplified by the war film. Éloge de la bâtardise au cinéma / In praise of cinematic bastardy. Paris (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense). Conference publication planned for Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Kappelhoff, H., Bakels, J.-H. (2011). Das Zuschauergefühl - Möglichkeiten qualitativer Medienanalyse. Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 5 (2).

Kappelhoff, H. (2010). "Sense of Community": Die Filmische Komposition eines moralischen Gefühls. War – Literature, Media, Emotions. An international and interdisciplinary seminar on emotional strategies and effects of war-representations in literature and media. University of Aarhus.

Kappelhoff, H. (2010). Was ist Zuschauen? Überlegungen zur mimetischen Aktivität von Medienrezipienten. Auslassen, Andeuten, Auffüllen. Der Film und die Imagination des Zuschauers. ICI Berlin.

Kappelhoff, H. (2009). Kriegerische Mobilisierung: Die mediale Organisation des Gemeinsinns. Frank Capras Prelude to War und Leni Riefenstahls Tag der Freiheit. Navigationen. Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften 9 (1). 151-165.

Pischel, C. (2008). Grenzverläufe filmischer Topographien: Gewalt gegen die Gemeinschaftlichkeit in Elephant und Pearl Harbor. Domsch, S. (Ed.). Amerikanisches Erzählen nach 2000. Eine Bestandsaufnahme. 319-337. München: edition text kritik.

Kappelhoff, H. (2006). Shell shocked face: Einige Überlegungen zur rituellen Funktion des US-amerikanischen Kriegsfilms. Suthor, N., Fischer-Lichte, E. (Eds.). Verklärte Körper. 69-89. München: Fink.