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WORK TITLE: Skepticism Films
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://schmerheim.com/
CITY: Bremen
STATE:
COUNTRY: Germany
NATIONALITY:
http://schmerheim.com/vita/ * http://www.bloomsbury.com/author/philipp-schmerheim
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.:
no2011153714
LCCN Permalink:
https://lccn.loc.gov/no2011153714
HEADING:
Schmerheim, Philipp
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PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Georg August University of Göttingen and Sapienza University of Rome, M.A. (media and communication studies), 2005; University of Amsterdam, Ph.D. (contemporary cinema), 2013.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, adjunct lecturer at the Department of German Languages and Literature, 2005-13; Georg August University of Göttingen, Center for Interdisciplinary Media Studies, adjunct lecturer, 2006-07; Ludwigsburg University of Education, Institut für Sprachen, adjunct lecturer, 2006; University of Amsterdam, Department of Philosophy, adjunct lecturer, 2013-15; University of Bremen, Germany, Children’s Media Research, lecturer, 2013—; University of Erfurt, Communication Studies Department, adjunct lecturer, 2014; KinderundJugendmedien.de, cofounder; Kinder- und Jugendliteratur Intermedial, coeditor.
MEMBER:Bremer Institut für Bilderbuchforschung, Bremer Institut für transmediale Textualitätsforschung, Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft, Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung, European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, and of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Philipp Schmerheim is an academic and lecturer focusing on film-philosophy, film analysis, history of children’s films, and theories of intermediality. He is lecturer in children’s media research at the University of Bremen, Germany, and is adjunct lecturer for film-philosophy in the philosophy department of the University of Amsterdam. He cofounded the KinderundJugendmedien.de Web site, which is devoted to interdisciplinary research on literature, films, and picture books for children and young adults. He is also coeditor of the book series Kinder-und Jugendliteratur Intermedial. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam.
In 2013 Schmerheim published Kinder-und Jugendfilmanalyse (Child and Youth Film Analysis). The book takes a methodological approach to analyzing children and youth films. He discusses how children and adolescents receive films differently from adults: youths experience a film more emotionally. Therefore, in films for youths, the sense of hearing (music and songs) plays a more central role in design and presentation. He discusses various children’s films, including Ratatouille, Tarzan, The Hunger Games, and Paranoid Park. Online at KIDS Regio, Schmerheim remarked on the future of feature films for children, saying that scholars are taking children’s film more seriously and are developing methods to better analyze and understand feature films for young people.
Schmerheim coedited with Tobias Kurwinkel and Annika Kurwinkel the 2014 Harry Potter Intermedial: Untersuchungen zu den (Film- ) Welten von Joanne K. Rowling (Investigations on the (Film-) Worlds of Joanne K. Rowling. The book gathers essays on the cinematic interpretation and implementation of Rowling’s books. Issues addressed include themes of racism, fascism, father figures, cinematic design, magic, time travel, landscapes, and music and sound design.
Schmerheim also wrote the 2016 Skepticism Films: Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema, part of the “Thinking Media” series. By exploring films like The Truman Show, Inception, The Matrix, Vanilla Sky, The Thirteenth Floor, Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, and Moon, Schmerheim discusses skepticism films, which are narrative films that dramatize suspicion and doubt about what we know about the world around us. He explores the films’ thought experiments that exemplify philosophy, specifically pessimism, in popular culture, thereby developing a topology of skepticism films.
He discusses the historical roots of skepticism in film; draws on ideas of Stanley Cavell, Gilles Deleuze, and Donald Davison; explores the varieties of philosophical skepticism, such as knowledge, acknowledgement, and trust; and explains the influence of the computer-generated fictional universe in cyberpunk literature. Schmerheim presents tools for philosophical film analysis, the philosophical significance of skepticism films, and films that present an external world with evil deceivers.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
ProtoView, March, 2016, review of Skepticism Films.
ONLINE
Bloomsbury, http://www.bloomsbury.com/ (November 19, 2015), review of Skepticism Films.
KIDS Regio, http://www.kids-regio.org/ (May 9, 2017), author interview.
Philipp Schmerheim Home Page, http://schmerheim.com (May 9, 2017).*
Vita
I am a university lecturer at the University of Bremen. My teaching and research focuses on the theory and analysis of literature, film and theatre for children and young adults, with a particular focus on intermedial and transmedial strategies of storytelling in contemporary digital culture. I have co-founded KinderundJugendmedien.de, a website dedicated to interdisciplinary research on literature, films, and picture books for children and young adults, and serve as a co-editor of the book series Kinder- und Jugendliteratur Intermedial. My most recent book publication is Kinder- und Jugendfilmanalyse (with Tobias Kurwinkel).
Another part of my academic life is lived as a film philosopher in film-philosophical publications that explore the intricate entanglement between philosophical thought and its expression in (mainstream) cinema. My book Skepticism Films. Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2015) introduces “Skepticism Films” as a major group of films with a philosophical twist, which not only popularize the philosophical idea that in fundamental respects we may not know what we believe to know about our world, but also contribute to a better philosophical understanding of this idea.
I spent my formative student years at the University of Göttingen, at the Sapienza University of Rome, and at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I came in close contact with analytic philosophy (particularly epistemology and the philosophy of language), film theory and film analysis. Armed with the idea of exploring the mutual influence between film and philosophy through the lens of skepticism films, I went on to write my PhD thesis at the University of Amsterdam. Along the way I discovered children’s media research as another highly fascinating yet still surprisingly unexplored area, which has led to a number of teaching and research projects as well as the publications mentioned above.
I am a member of the Bremer Institut für Bilderbuchforschung (BIBF), Bremer Institut für transmediale Textualitätsforschung (BITT), Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft (GfM), Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung (GKJF), European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS), and of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS),
Outside of academia, I have worked as an analyst, editor, translator and writer for several media analysis companies, online news sites and documentary film production companies.
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Current position (since 2013)
University lecturer at the University of Bremen, Faculty 10: Linguistics and Literary Studies, German Studies Department, research unit for children’s media
since 2016
Adjunct lecturer, Ludwigsburg University of Education, Institut für Sprachen
since 2014
Adjunct lecturer, University of Erfurt, Communication Studies Department
2014-2016
Associate Junior Fellow, Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK), Delmenhorst for a project on fear and self-empowerment in children’s film
2013-2015
Adjunct lecturer, University of Amsterdam, Department of Philosophy
2013
PhD degree, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), with highest honours. Thesis: “Skepticism Films. Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema”
2011-2013
PhD fellowship at Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam
2009-2013
Co-director of various research and teaching projects on the intermediality of children’s literature, Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf
Since 2007
Freelance online editor and researcher for various media companies
2006-2007
University of Amsterdam. MA programme in Media and Culture (Film Studies), with highest honours
2006-2007
Adjunct lecturer at Georg August University of Göttingen, Center for Interdisciplinary Media Studies
2005-2013
Adjunct lecturer at the Department of German Languages and Literature, Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf
2005-2006
University of California, Santa Barbara. Visiting graduate student, Department of Film and Media Studies, Department of Philosophy
1998-2005
Georg August University of Göttingen and Sapienza University of Rome. M.A. programme in Philosophy, Media and Communication Studies, Ancient History
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IMPRESSUM
Verantwortlich gemäß §6 TDG/§10 MDStV:
Dr. Philipp Schmerheim
Hedwig-Heyl-Str. 3
28213 Bremen
Email: philipp (at) schmerheim.de
Haftungshinweis
Gemäß §5 Abs. 1 TDG bin ich ausschließlich nur für die eigenen Inhalte verantwortlich. Für Links auf fremde Inhalte dritter Anbieter bin ich gemäß §5 Abs. 2 TDG nur verantwortlich, wenn ich von einem rechtswidrigen oder strafbaren Gehalt positive Kenntnis habe und es technisch möglich und zumutbar ist, deren Nutzung zu verhindern. Auch bin ich nicht verpflichtet, in periodischen Abständen den Inhalt von Angeboten Dritter auf deren Rechtswidrigkeit oder Strafbarkeit zu überprüfen. Sobald ich von dem rechtswidrigen Inhalt der Web-Seiten Dritter erfahre, wird der entsprechende Link von meiner Seite entfernt. Weiterhin möchte ich ausdrücklich betonen, dass ich keinerlei Einfluss auf die Gestaltung und die Inhalte der gelinkten Seiten habe. Deshalb distanziere ich mich hiermit ausdrücklich von allen Inhalten aller gelinkten Seiten auf der gesamten Website inklusive aller Unterseiten. Diese Erklärung gilt für alle auf der Homepage ausgebrachten Links und für alle Inhalte der Seiten, zu denen Links oder Banner führen. Sollten Inhalte dieser Internetangebote gegen geltendes Urheberrecht oder das Markengesetz verstoßen, werden diese auf Hinweis schnellstmöglich entfernt.
Copyright title photograph: Philipp Schmerheim
Books
Skepticism Films visual 1Skepticism Films. Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema. New York: Bloomsbury, 2015 (= thinking | media; 2)
Skepticism Films. Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema introduces skepticism films as updated configurations of skepticist themes that exemplify the pervasion of philosophical ideas in popular culture. As will be shown, a detailed analysis of skepticism films and of the general relation between philosophical skepticism and cinema contributes to a better understanding of the dynamic interplay between film and philosophy.
The first part of the book defends a general, pluralistic film-philosophical position according to which films can be, but need not be, expressions of philosophical thought in their own right. The second part investigates the role of skepticist ideas in philosophical reflection on the medium of film by critically discussing the works of the film-philosophers Stanley Cavell, Gilles Deleuze, Josef Früchtl, Patricia Pisters, and D.N. Rodowick. The concluding parts of the book explore varieties of skepticism films as an integral phenomenon of contemporary cinema culture with the help of detailed case studies of films such as The Truman Show, Inception, Matrix, Vanilla Sky, The Thirteenth Floor, and Shutter Island.
Skepticism Films. Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema has been published with Bloomsbury Publishing in November 2015. The link to the publisher’s website is here; an online reading sample can be found here.
More information on the book here.
Research
My research focuses on storytelling across media, on the way in which the expressive potentiae of media of expression such as literature, film, comics, and theatre influence the way in which stories are told.
Within that framework, my research moves between two distinct yet methodically interrelated areas: On the one hand, I am working on theoretical and analytical approaches to contemporary storytelling for children and young adults in literature, film, comics, and other media. On the other hand, I regularly write on topics in film philosophy, as part of an overarching interest in the way in which media of thought influence the expression and therefore character of thought:
Contemporary storytelling for children and young adults
(Click on title for more information)
Contemporary literature for children and young adults is embedded in an overarching (trans)media system: The way in which contemporary books aiming at mass markets are written usually facilitates their adaptation in other media such as film, audio books or digital games; simultaneously, the writing habits of contemporary authors are influenced by the developments of contemporary (digital) media culture. These inter- and transmedial tendencies hold for the other dominant medium of contemporary storytelling as well: Audiovisual media such as film and television largely owe their narrative and aesthetic inclinations to the influence of literature.
In my research, I aim at a better understanding of the ways in which these intermedial relations shape the narrato-aesthetic tendencies of contemporary storytelling for children and young adults. Recent book publications include Kinder- und Jugendfilmanalyse, an introduction to methods of children’s film analysis, and edited volumes on intermediality in the works of authors such as Astrid Lindgren, Joanne Rowling, and Michael Ende.
Film philosophy
(Click on title for more information)
Media of expression do not merely allow for different ways of telling a story; they also present different ways of thinking about the world in general. Philosophy is one of the most general and fundamental ways of thinking about the world. While historically, the proper expression of philosophical thought has been confined to certain ways of non-fictional writing, narrative fiction, and especially narrative film, have long been considered as being inferior in that respect. My film-philosophical publications explore how exactly films can be understood and analyzed as being philosophical, as being expressions of philosophical thought in their own right. My main publication on that topic is the monograph Skepticism Films. Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema.
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Philipp Schmerheim is Lecturer in Children's Media Research at the University of Bremen, Germany, and Adjunct Lecturer for Film-Philosophy at the Philosophy Department of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His research focuses on film-philosophy, philosophical film analysis, the history and analysis of children's film, and theories of intermediality.
Writes: Media Theory
Author of : Skepticism Films
- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/author/philipp-schmerheim#sthash.aMZA2hSZ.dpuf
Dr. Philipp Schmerheim
Before becoming a lecturer at the University of Bremen and an adjunct lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, he worked on various teaching and research projects focusing on the intermediality of children’s literature. His current research focuses on children’s media, in particular the analysis and history of children’s films and the emerging practices of transmedial storytelling for young audiences. Aside his academic research, he worked as a media analyst for documentary film and media companies.
What does your institution do?
The German Literature Department of the University of Bremen focuses strongly on children’s literature, media research and education. KinderundJugendmedien.de is affiliated with the University. Our team investigates and monitors developments in the field of interdisciplinary children’s media research.
What do you do in this institution?
I’m responsible for teaching and research on children’s literature and media, as part of the curriculum of future elementary school teachers. At KinderundJugendmedien.de, I’m the deputy editor-in-chief and in charge of film reviews and the encyclopaedia. I’ve published Kinder- und Jugendfilmanalyse, an introduction on children’s film analysis.
How do you see the future of live action feature films for children?
More scholars start to take children’s films seriously with methods being developed for better analyzing and understanding the role of feature films for young audiences.
4/12/17, 4(55 PM
Print Marked Items
Skepticism Films: Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema
ProtoView.
(Mar. 2016): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 Ringgold, Inc. http://www.protoview.com/protoview
Full Text:
9781501310973
Skepticism Films: Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema Philipp Schmerheim
Bloomsbury
2016
335 pages
$130.00
Hardcover
Thinking Media
PN1995
Drawing on the ideas of Stanley Cavell, Gilles Deleuze, and Donald Davison, this study explores skepticism films that offer a pessimistic cinematic version of fantastic literature in which sane protagonists are deceived by external technological forces, making them unaware that they are living in a simulated, artificial, or misinterpreted environment. The book reviews the historical roots of philosophical skepticism, charts the proliferation of skepticism films in mainstream cinema, and provides a typology for evaluating skepticism films. Many of the films discussed tap into the trope of the computer-generated fictional universe in cyberpunk literature. Some of the cinematic dystopias examined include Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, The Truman Show, Vanilla Sky, and Inception. The book contains a wealth of b&w film stills. ([umlaut] Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Skepticism Films: Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema." ProtoView, Mar. 2016.
PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA451474154&it=r&asid=08b53e6087a66c9805c77983d84a9beb. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.
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Skepticism Films
Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema
By: Philipp Schmerheim
Media of Skepticism Films
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Published: 11-19-2015
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 352
ISBN: 9781501310973
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Series: Thinking Media
Illustrations: 100 bw illus
Dimensions: 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
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About Skepticism Films
Skepticism Films: Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema introduces skepticism films as updated configurations of skepticist thought experiments which exemplify the pervasiveness of philosophical ideas in popular culture. Philipp Schmerheim defends a pluralistic film-philosophical position according to which films can be, but need not be, expressions of philosophical thought in their own right. It critically investigates the influence of ideas of skepticism on film-philosophical theories and develops a typology of skepticism films by analyzing The Truman Show, Inception, The Matrix, Vanilla Sky, The Thirteenth Floor, Moon and other contemporary skepticism films. With its focus on skepticism as one of the most significant philosophical problems, Skepticism Films provides a better understanding of the dynamic interplay between film, theories of film and philosophy.
Table of contents
List of figures
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: Skepticism Films. A Certain Tendency in Contemporary Cinema
Part I: Thinking Through Cinema
2. Films as Configurations of Philosophical Thought
3. Remediating Philosophy, or: The Media of Philosophical Thought
Part II: Skepticism in Film Philosophy
4. Varieties of Philosophical Skepticism: Knowledge, Acknowledgement, and Trust
5. A Moving Image of Skepticism? Philosophy's Acknowledgement of Film
6. A Cinema for Believers. Trust, Belief, and the Expulsion from the Paradise of Childhood
Part III: Skepticism Films
7. Varieties of Skepticism Films
8. Tools for Philosophical Film Analysis
9. (Not) Knowing My World: External World Skepticism Films
10. Not Knowing My Self, or: Being One's Own Evil Deceiver
11. Coda. From Doubt to Acknowledgement, or: The Philosophical Significance of Skepticism Films revisited
Bibliography and Filmography
Index
- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/skepticism-films-9781501310973/#sthash.f4Yhl4eY.dpuf