Philosophy of Werner Herzog

M. Blake Wilson is assistant professor of criminal justice at California State University, Stanislaus. Christopher Turner is assistant professor of philosophy at California State University, Stanislaus.

• ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1. I Am What My Films Are: Listening to Herzog’s Ecstatic, Essayistic Pronouncements David LaRoccaChapter 2. Herzog’s Sublime and Ecstatic Truth: From Burke’s Physiological Aesthesis to the Dionysian Unveiling Patricia Castello BrancoChapter 3. The Conquest of Uselessness as a Practice of Film and Thought Daniele Dottorini Chapter 4. Filmmaking and Philosophizing Against the Grain of Theory: Herzog and Wittgenstein Mihai Ométi?aChapter 5. Nature and Meaning in Grizzly Man Marc FurstenauChapter 6. Reflections from the Abyss: Herzog’s Philosophy of DeathM. Blake Wilson Chapter 7. Fake News and Ecstatic Truths: Alternative Facts in Lessons of Darkness Kyle NovakChapter 8. The Great Ecstasy of Werner Herzog: Truth, Heidegger, Apocalypse Ian Alexander MooreChapter 9. The Film Artist as Discoverer of the Marvels of Everyday Life: Toward a Kracauerian Reading of Werner HerzogChristopher TurnerChapter 10. Werner Herzog and Documen

For this title in the "Philosophy of Popular Culture” series, Wilson and Turner bring together an international team of philosophy and film theory scholars to discuss Herzog and his films as they relate to the philosophical writings of Burke, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and film theorist Siegfried Kracauer. A variety of topics are covered, including some that are unusual, e.g., Herzog’s philosophy of masculinism, alternative facts and fake news, and the filmmaker’s philosophy of death. The first essay provides a helpful overview of recent scholarship. The diverse perspectives presented make this volume a welcome complement to Richard Thomas Eldridge’s Werner Herzog: Filmmaker and Philosopher. This volume certainly sheds new light on Herzog, but will be most useful to those who are already familiar with him, philosophy, and film theory. Recommended.