African American Film Noir and Philosophy - by Dan Flory (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

How have feelings, presumptions, and preconceptions concerning racialized Blackness intersected with film noir? Dan Flory relies on recent advances in philosophy of film, philosophy of emotion, cognitive film theory, and critical philosophy of race to guide his analyses of this well-known film genre.
Making sense of techniques, themes, and characterizations filmmakers have used in order to structure movies into film noirs, Flory focuses on those viewer responses that are not consciously registered by higher-level forms of cognition. He argues that embodied, affective, and implicit reactions are key to understanding how film noir typically conveys ideas, feelings, and perspectives concerning race.
Noir films by African American and other artists have frequently sought to elicit such embodied responses, rendering their investigation vital. In many cases, these artists have created works that aim, either explicitly or implicitly, to be filmed in the guise of philosophy by generating serious thoughtful reflection. By using advances from these theoretical subfields in conjunction with developments in mainstream, African American, and other kinds of filmmaking, Flory elucidates many under-analyzed dimensions of noir films and their intersection with racialized Blackness. Aiming to both diagnose as well as seek ways to overcome socio-political problems concerning anti-Blackness, Black invisibility, and the epistemic injustices they generate, Flory paves the way for revolutionary moral change.

Review Quotes

"African-American Film Noir and Philosophy argues forcefully that African-American filmmakers have expanded film noire so that it can afford potentially emancipatory resources for challenging anti-black prejudice by provoking troubling responses in White audiences that can engender philosophical reflection upon what it means to be a racist." --Noel Carroll, Professor of Philosophy, The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA

"Flory's masterful study of film noir's racial dimensions brilliantly illuminates the racial politics of this important genre. Readers-both academics and the general public-will gain a new appreciation of how films can be socially critical while also encouraging philosophical reflection. A must read for anyone interested in film, race and racism, philosophy or all of the above." --Thomas Wartenberg, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Mount Holyoke College, USA

"In African American Film Noir and Philosophy, Dan Flory shows how African-American filmmakers - particularly those participating in the new Black film wave of the 1990s - bent noir's fatalism, chiaroscuro, and outlaw figures to expose and denounce anti-Black racism. This is film scholarship at its best - analytically rigorous, politically attuned, and imaginatively open to re-seeing the boundaries of a much-discussed genre, noir, and its role both on and off the movie screen." --Laura T. Di Summa, Associate Professor, William Paterson University, USA

"Rarely do philosophers engage with film theory and history as perceptively and insightfully as does Flory in this powerful and original study. African American Film Noir and Philosophy puts race firmly in the picture in the study of film noir, and innovatively makes embodied cognition and affect central to its potential for moral change. I highly recommend it." --Margrethe Bruun Vaage, professor of film studies, NTNU, Norway

"Professor Flory has done it again! His latest careful study of culture work and race-making shows how much we don't know, and haven't wanted to know, about film noir. This is a boon to philosophical film studies, to critical race aesthetics, and to aesthetics - and philosophy - as a whole." --Paul C. Taylor, Presidential Professor of Philosophy, University of California, USA

"This meticulously researched study details the history of film noir and its often racialized elements, culminating in the emergence of Black noir by African-American directors. Flory's sweeping, detailed discussion cogently alerts readers to the ways that film noir can shape audience attitudes in pursuit of political understanding and social justice." --Carolyn Korsmeyer, professor emerita, University at Buffalo, USA

"Tracing the tension between positive and negative representations of Black people in film noir, Dan Flory complicates any received notions of inherent prejudice in such films. This book interrogates the sometimes forgotten links between racialised Blackness and the blackness of film noir to show that the failure of the American dream might be that complicated nation's saving grace."" --David Sorfa, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

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