Toward a General Theory of Film Spectatorship
نویسنده
چکیده
This article presents a general theory of the film spectator from a cognitive perspective. This perspective considers Thagard’s (2000) notion of ‘striving for coherence’ as the most appropriate description of spectators’ mental dispositions toward feature films; it regards Fauconnier & Turner’s (2002) theory of Mental Spaces and Conceptual Blending as the most comprehensive account of human meaning construction available to date; and it assumes phenomenological reduction as a necessary methodological prerequisite for theory building. These pages comprise a four part argument that lays out the cognitive dimensions of coherence, applies them to the analysis of two scenes from two classic Hollywood suspense thrillers using a mode of mental space analysis known as the “Aarhus model,” and articulates a phenomenology of film spectatorship based on the same theoretical framework. When combined with Thagard’s description of coherence, the Aarhus mode of analysis, and a tripartite phenomenology of cinematic engagement, Mental Spaces and Blending Theory provides a cognitively plausible answer to the perennial question: how do spectators makes sense of feature films?
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