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Il cinema o l'uomo immaginario
When The Cinema, or The Imaginary Man first appeared in 1956, the movies and the moviegoing experience were generally not regarded as worthy of serious scholarly consideration. Yet, French critic and social theorist Edgar Morin perceived in the cinema a complex phenomenon capable of illuminating fundamental truths about thought, imagination, and human nature - which allowed him to connect the mythic universe of gods and spirits present within the most primitive societies to the hyperreality emanating from the images projected on the screen. Now making its English-language debut, this audacious, provocative work draws on insights from poets, filmmakers, anthropologists, and philosophers to restore to the cinema the sense of magic first enjoyed at the dawn of the medium. Morin's inquiry follows two veins of investigation. The first focuses on the cinematic image as the nexus between the real and the imaginary; the second examines the cinema's re-creation of the archaic universe of doubles and ghosts and its power to possess, to bewitch, to nourish dreams, desires, and aspirations. "We experience the cinema in a state of double consciousness," Morin writes, "an astonishing phenomenon where the illusion of reality is inseparable from the awareness that it is really an illusion."
209 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1956
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About the author
Edgar Morin
419 books373 followersEdgar Morin (born Edgar Nahoum) is a French philosopher and sociologist who has been internationally recognized for his work on complexity and "complex thought," and for his scholarly contributions to such diverse fields as media studies, politics, sociology, visual anthropology, ecology, education, and systems biology. He holds degrees in history, economics, and law. Though less well known in the United States due to the limited availability of English translations of his over 60 books, Morin is renowned in the French-speaking world, Europe, and Latin America.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Morin's family migrated from the Greek town of Salonica to Marseille and later to Paris, where Edgar was born. He first became tied to socialism in connection with the Popular Front and the Spanish Republican Government during the Spanish Civil War.
When the Germans invaded France in 1940, Edgar fled to Toulouse, where he assisted refugees and committed himself to Marxist socialism. As a member of the French Resistance he adopted the pseudonym Morin, which he would use for the rest of his life. He joined the French Communist Party in 1941. In 1945, Morin married Violette Chapellaubeau and they lived in Landau, where he served as a Lieutenant in the French Occupation army in Germany.
In 1946, he returned to Paris and gave up his military career to pursue his activities with the Communist party. Due to his critical posture, his relationship with the party gradually deteriorated until he was expelled in 1951 after he published an article in Le Nouvel Observateur. In the same year, he was admitted to the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS).
Morin founded and directed the magazine Arguments (1954–1962). In 1959 his book Autocritique was published.
In 1960, Morin travelled extensively in Latin America, visiting Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico.He returned to France where he published L'Esprit du Temps.
That same year, French sociologist Georges Friedmann brought him and Roland Barthes together to create a Centre for the Study of Mass Communication that, after several name-changes, became the Edgar Morin Centre of the EHESS, Paris.
Beginning in 1965, Morin became involved in a large multidisciplinary project, financed by the Délégation Générale à la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique in Plozévet.
In 1968, Morin replaced Henri Lefebvre at the University of Nanterre. He became involved in the student revolts that began to emerge in France. In May 1968, he wrote a series of articles for Le Monde that tried to understand what he called "The Student Commune." He followed the student revolt closely and wrote a second series of articles in Le Monde called "The Revolution without a Face," as well as co-authoring Mai 68: La brèche with Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort.
In 1969, Morin spent a year at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.
In 1983, he published De la nature de l’URSS, which deepened his analysis of Soviet communism and anticipated the Perestroika of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Morin was married to Johanne Harrelle, with whom he lived for 15 years.
In 2002, Morin participated in the creation of the International Ethical, Scientific and Political Collegium.
In addition to being the UNESCO Chair of Complex Thought, Morin is known as a founder of transdisciplinarity and holds honorary doctorates in a variety of social science fields from 21 universities (Messina, Geneva, Milan, Bergamo, Thessaloniki, La Paz, Odense, Perugia, Cosenza, Palermo, Nuevo León, Université de Laval à Québec, Brussels, Barcelona, Guadalajara, Valencia, Vera Cruz, Santiago, the Catholic University of Porto Alegre, the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, and Candido Mendes University Rio de Janeiro.
The University of Messina in Sicily, Ricardo Palma University in Lima, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the French National Research Center in
At the beginning of the 20th century, Morin's family migrated from the Greek town of Salonica to Marseille and later to Paris, where Edgar was born. He first became tied to socialism in connection with the Popular Front and the Spanish Republican Government during the Spanish Civil War.
When the Germans invaded France in 1940, Edgar fled to Toulouse, where he assisted refugees and committed himself to Marxist socialism. As a member of the French Resistance he adopted the pseudonym Morin, which he would use for the rest of his life. He joined the French Communist Party in 1941. In 1945, Morin married Violette Chapellaubeau and they lived in Landau, where he served as a Lieutenant in the French Occupation army in Germany.
In 1946, he returned to Paris and gave up his military career to pursue his activities with the Communist party. Due to his critical posture, his relationship with the party gradually deteriorated until he was expelled in 1951 after he published an article in Le Nouvel Observateur. In the same year, he was admitted to the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS).
Morin founded and directed the magazine Arguments (1954–1962). In 1959 his book Autocritique was published.
In 1960, Morin travelled extensively in Latin America, visiting Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico.He returned to France where he published L'Esprit du Temps.
That same year, French sociologist Georges Friedmann brought him and Roland Barthes together to create a Centre for the Study of Mass Communication that, after several name-changes, became the Edgar Morin Centre of the EHESS, Paris.
Beginning in 1965, Morin became involved in a large multidisciplinary project, financed by the Délégation Générale à la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique in Plozévet.
In 1968, Morin replaced Henri Lefebvre at the University of Nanterre. He became involved in the student revolts that began to emerge in France. In May 1968, he wrote a series of articles for Le Monde that tried to understand what he called "The Student Commune." He followed the student revolt closely and wrote a second series of articles in Le Monde called "The Revolution without a Face," as well as co-authoring Mai 68: La brèche with Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort.
In 1969, Morin spent a year at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.
In 1983, he published De la nature de l’URSS, which deepened his analysis of Soviet communism and anticipated the Perestroika of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Morin was married to Johanne Harrelle, with whom he lived for 15 years.
In 2002, Morin participated in the creation of the International Ethical, Scientific and Political Collegium.
In addition to being the UNESCO Chair of Complex Thought, Morin is known as a founder of transdisciplinarity and holds honorary doctorates in a variety of social science fields from 21 universities (Messina, Geneva, Milan, Bergamo, Thessaloniki, La Paz, Odense, Perugia, Cosenza, Palermo, Nuevo León, Université de Laval à Québec, Brussels, Barcelona, Guadalajara, Valencia, Vera Cruz, Santiago, the Catholic University of Porto Alegre, the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, and Candido Mendes University Rio de Janeiro.
The University of Messina in Sicily, Ricardo Palma University in Lima, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the French National Research Center in
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 30, 2023
morin tvb
June 30, 2011
La reflexión que da origen a la investigación de Edgar Morin es una reflexión sobre el papel que juegan en nuestra sociedad dos inventos del siglo XIX: el avión y el cinematógrafo. Por un lado, la invención del avión representa la posibilidad de realizar el sueño milenario de recorrer el cielo. La precisión del cinematógrafo para capturar imágenes de la realidad, por otro lado, parece adecuarse más a las necesidades del mundo práctico. Sin embargo, mientras que el avión se ha convertido en el medio práctico del viaje, del comercio y de la guerra, el cinematógrafo le ha abierto paso a uno de los espectáculos más grandes de todos los tiempos: el cine.
¿Es una contingencia histórica que el avión se haya adaptado a las necesidades prácticas de la vida mientras que el cine es hoy en día un gran espectáculo? La hipótesis de Morin es que no. Por el contrario, hay algo en la naturaleza del cine que lo hace especialmente apto para jugar este papel, algo que lo une inseparablemente al espectador. La estrategia que sigue Morin para descubrir este elemento consiste, en primer lugar, en rastrear sus orígenes en tres momentos de la génesis del cine: la imagen fotográfica, el cinematógrafo y el cine como tal. Una vez que ha identificado los orígenes de dicho elemento en las distintas cualidades materiales de estos medios, Morin procede a investigar cuáles son las causas psicológicas que hacen posible la experiencia del espectador. El desarrollo del libro es muy complicado. Hay partes que son bastante claras, pero hay partes que están llenas de metáforas muy oscuras. De cualquier forma, creo que vale la pena leerlo.
¿Es una contingencia histórica que el avión se haya adaptado a las necesidades prácticas de la vida mientras que el cine es hoy en día un gran espectáculo? La hipótesis de Morin es que no. Por el contrario, hay algo en la naturaleza del cine que lo hace especialmente apto para jugar este papel, algo que lo une inseparablemente al espectador. La estrategia que sigue Morin para descubrir este elemento consiste, en primer lugar, en rastrear sus orígenes en tres momentos de la génesis del cine: la imagen fotográfica, el cinematógrafo y el cine como tal. Una vez que ha identificado los orígenes de dicho elemento en las distintas cualidades materiales de estos medios, Morin procede a investigar cuáles son las causas psicológicas que hacen posible la experiencia del espectador. El desarrollo del libro es muy complicado. Hay partes que son bastante claras, pero hay partes que están llenas de metáforas muy oscuras. De cualquier forma, creo que vale la pena leerlo.
January 19, 2020
"Does the cinema have a soul, the Philistines wonder. But it has only that. It overflows with it; oozes with it, to the extent that the aesthetic of feeling becomes the aesthetic of vague sentiment, to the extent that the soul ceases to be exaltations and blossoming to become the enclosed garden of inner complacencies. Love, passion, emotion, heart: the cinema, like our world, is all slimy and lachrymal with them. So much soul! So much soul!"
December 6, 2024
Un dos meus libros favoritos sobre cinema. está cheo de mil ideas apaixonantes sobre a imaxinación, a enxeñería, a sociedade francesa de inicios do século XX, sobre o amor, sobre a identificación cos personaxes ou sobre a formalización das imaxes —está cheo de aforismos brillantes, máis alá da cuestión do cinema, libro escrito para ser eternamente subraiado—. Consegue aunar mil teorías do cinema dunha forma sorprendentemente sintetizada, funcionando como un proxector infinito de fugas a distintos temas e cuestión que o cinema abarca, sen necesidade de converterse nun glosario, senón tentando esgotar o pensamento que lle xera o cinema como cuestión, como problema estético a tratar.
Nese sentido, sorprende que consiga, non ir sobre un apartado concreto do cinema —un xénero, un director, un periodo, unha nómina de obras...—, senón tratar o cinema como o propio tema. Dáme certa preguiza esa forma de tratar as disciplinas artísticas de forma estanca, tentando pensar en que se diferenza unhas das outras —toda a parte do que separa a fotografía do cinema dáme igual—, algo bastante habitual no periodo que vive Morin, pero non por iso deixa de parecerme unha introducción espectacular cara as teorías do cinema como forma de pensamento.
Logra ser unha preciosa e estimulante historia do cinema, sen ser historiográfica e afogarse nas referencias académicas. Teño que facerme cunha edición física del, porque encantaríame telo anotado por min e subraialo e relelo de cando en vez, sobre todo cando perda a paixón co cinema.
Nese sentido, sorprende que consiga, non ir sobre un apartado concreto do cinema —un xénero, un director, un periodo, unha nómina de obras...—, senón tratar o cinema como o propio tema. Dáme certa preguiza esa forma de tratar as disciplinas artísticas de forma estanca, tentando pensar en que se diferenza unhas das outras —toda a parte do que separa a fotografía do cinema dáme igual—, algo bastante habitual no periodo que vive Morin, pero non por iso deixa de parecerme unha introducción espectacular cara as teorías do cinema como forma de pensamento.
Logra ser unha preciosa e estimulante historia do cinema, sen ser historiográfica e afogarse nas referencias académicas. Teño que facerme cunha edición física del, porque encantaríame telo anotado por min e subraialo e relelo de cando en vez, sobre todo cando perda a paixón co cinema.
May 8, 2020
Il m’a sauvé des stupidités.....Je n’ai même pas envie de jeter un coup d’œil des écrits des autres grands auteurs qui embrouillent la question de la réalité et l’imaginaire.
-L’esprit humain éclaire le cinéma qui éclaire..-
Il est le seul qui dévoile clairement une telle purement simple logique,ne s’y embrouille pas , à son époque, et même aussi aujourd’hui.
-L’esprit humain éclaire le cinéma qui éclaire..-
Il est le seul qui dévoile clairement une telle purement simple logique,ne s’y embrouille pas , à son époque, et même aussi aujourd’hui.
June 3, 2020
Cinema e magia: un approccio razionale.
August 31, 2023
Morin ti devo tutto, grazie
October 13, 2024
A solid foundation for combining film studies and psychoanalysis - paved the way for Baudry, Metz and Mulvey. Quite interesting in some respects: the cinematograph vs the cinema, the hocus pocus realm of cinema, etc. but for some reason, I found it a bit of a chore to go through. A classic nonetheless. And an anthropologist reflecting on cinema is quite a cool thing, perhaps you will enjoy it more - psychoanalysis is not my cup of tea.
April 11, 2013
La propuesta interesante de este libro, el doble de la imagen de cine, que a un tiempo responde a un realismo exigente y a una potencia emocional brutal, se ve repetido una y otra vez hasta agotar un texto que podría haber tenido menos páginas....
August 6, 2012
"El cine o el Hombre Imaginario" de Edgar Morin es una compleja carta técnica de amor al cine. Lectura muy pesada pero valiosa.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews