door viewers
moving viewers american film and the spectators experience
everyone knows the thrill of being transported by a film but what is it that makes movie watching such a compelling emotional experience in moving viewers carl plantinga explores this question and the implications of its answer for aesthetics the psychology of spectatorship and the place of movies in culture . through an in depth discussion of mainstream hollywood films plantinga investigates what he terms the paradox of negative emotion and the function of mainstream narratives as ritualistic fantasies . he describes the sensual nature of the movies and shows how film emotions are often elicited for rhetorical purposes . he uses cognitive science and philosophical aesthetics to demonstrate why cinema may deliver a similar emotional charge for diverse audiences .