Film aesthetics and Childhood

• Applicant: Dr. Bettina Henzler
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 261128173

This research project in film studies focusses on the aesthetic representation and experience of childhood. In exemplary analysis of French autheur cinema since 1945 the media specific aesthetic of childhood will be studied. In addition to the dominating narratological or discourse analysis in this field my research will take a phenomenological perspective und method. This will allow me to define and describe childhood not only as construction of childhood images but also as a filmic experience and as an aesthetic phenomenon. The focus will be on the questions of the recording and representation of children and their specific embodiement in film, childhood as perspective and experience of the spectator, and childhood as aesthetic principle of play, mimetics and transgression. The film analysis will be based on phenomenological theories of childhood and on the discourse on childhood and film, which can be found in film theory as well as in films since the beginning of cinema. The goal of the project is to lay ground for a film-aesthetical category of childhood which will stand by the established pedagogical, psychological and sociological models of childhood and be of particular importance for film studies and film pedagogy.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants