Taking Fiction Film Seriously

A Philosophical Approach to Cinema Studies

Taking Fiction Film Seriously cover

Taking Fiction Film Seriously

A Philosophical Approach to Cinema Studies

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Pre-order. Available 02 Oct 2025
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Description

Fiction film has been and remains the privileged site of film studies, with film history regularly being viewed as the rise of the narrative fiction film. Taking Fiction Film Seriously argues that despite this privileged position, the notion of fiction as it relates to cinema, has yet to be properly interrogated.

Mario Slugan explores the significant misunderstandings concerning the categorisation of film, audience experience, and the real-life effects of fiction. He contends with the contradictory assumption that fiction films have tangible effects on audiences' beliefs and behaviours, while also intuitively being 'not true' or not to be believed in.

Slugan analyses the notion of 'fiction' from a theoretical and historical perspective, considering how it manifests in a broad range of films from the past 110 years, including The Arrival of a Train (Lumière brothers, 1895-1897), The Blair Witch Project (Myrick and Sánchez, 1999), and Waltz with Bashir (Folman, 2008). He supports his close readings with findings from philosophy, psychology, and literary studies, and in doing so seeks to challenge the current state of film studies.

Table of Contents

List of figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART ONE: Theories of Fiction
1. Fiction as challenge to cinema studies
2. Philosophy of fiction
PART TWO: Fiction as Primarily Mandated Imagination
3. The temporally unstable primacy of mandate
4. Mandated Imagination in Fiction Film
PART THREE: Imagination and the effects of fiction
5. Imaginative resistance and the richness of imagining
6. Imagination and emotional engagement with characters
7. Fiction, belief and knowledge acquisition
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 02 Oct 2025
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 272
ISBN 9781350505674
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 30 bw illus
Dimensions 234 x 156 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Mario Slugan

Mario Slugan is Lecturer at the Department of Film…

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