Make Believe in Film and Fiction

This study provides the first detailed contrast between the experiences of reading a novel and watching a movie. Kroeber shows how fiction evokes morally inflected imagining, and how movies reveal through magnification of human movements and expression subjective effects of complex social changes.

'Filled with brilliant analyses of many classic films and novels, Kroeber's fascinating and witty study argues in persuasive detail for the special charms of the visual and, even better, for the extraordinary imaginative power of the verbal. This generous and accessible book should be read by everyone interested in the workings of narrative, both visual and verbal.' - Susan Morgan, Distinguished Professor of English, Miami University of Ohio

"Kroeber takes on the vexed comparison between verbal and visual storytelling and produces the best account we have - a revelation." Tobin Siebers, University of Michigan

'Kroeber's Make Believe in Film and Fiction wears its considerable erudition lightly and will probably reinvigorate interest in some of the first principles of film and literary aesthetics. Kroeber writes pleasurably and convincingly about the fundamental differences between seeing and reading, as well as about the different forms of imagination that good movies and good books elicit. His analysis of classic films and books is consistently intelligent, producing a seamless blend of criticism and theory. - James Naremore, Indiana University

Autorentext
KARL KROEBER is Mellon Professor in Humanities at Columbia University, USA.

Inhalt
Brutal Beginning: Imagining Murder/Watching Murder Moving Eyes, Moving Sculptures Inside and Outside Somebody Else's Fantasy Make Believe is Always a Story Single-Handed and Collective Make Believe Movies and Hyper-Visual Culture La Strada and the Conjecturing Imagination Madame Bovary : Linguistic Configurings of Imaginative Corruption Rashomon and Wuthering Heights Form in Visual Storytelling: Buster Keaton's The General Genre and Transforming Sources: High Noon Forenoon Seeing and Imagining Ethical Crises: High Noon : Afternoon Great Expectations : Insights from the Impossibility of Adaptation Magnifying Criminality: Fargo , Film Noir, and A Perfect World Innovative Lawfulness: Learning to Read Works Cited Index