This research aims to accomplish a complex investigation into what we propose to term "affective intermediality". We see this as a necessary and logical extension of the line of thinking that conceives intermediality not in semiotic terms, as a set of abstract categories and combinations (i.e. a kind of grammar), but – drawing on phenomenology and various philosophical sources – as a "poetics", an art of in-betweenness, or as a "sensual excess", "as a perceivable figure of media difference which disturbs the order of the discourse" (Joachim Paech). We attempt to map a wider area where "an affective turn" of intermediality studies can be conceived and where a focus on affects and sensations can yield a better understanding of the ways in which intermediality "works", and intermedial phenomena can establish "passages to physical reality" (Lúcia Nagib). Through in-depth case studies focusing on a wide selection from recent films made all over the world, with a special attention given also to films made by women, we propose an investigation into the affordances of intermedial cinema in conveying and generating specific "sensibilities", in experimenting with the representability and affective accessibility of a traumatic past or with the combination of emotional engagement and reflexive distantiation. We emphasize the epistemic value of intermediality: its capacity to generate feelings and revelations about the world.
We propose a threefold research:
1. A theoretical exploration with the aim of initiating a new approach in intermediality studies defined as "affective intermediality". Our general theoretical goal is to define this approach conceptually and to identify key areas where this should be implemented. We aim to theorize intermediality from the vantage points of affects, sensations connecting the experience of intermediality to reality. We propose to investigate the affective and performative role of intermediality, and to search for theoretical tools to describe such processes.
2. An examination of poetic strategies and tropes through which an "affective intermediality" is manifested in contemporary cinema. Our goal in this respect is to identify and interpret relevant poetic strategies (also to further refine the general modalities constituting the "structural" and the "sensual" templates of cinematic intermediality, considering also the ways they can merge).
3. An exploration of specific sensations and feelings communicated through intermediality, and an examination of ways in which impressions of media ambivalences (i.e. "sensations of intermediality") occur.
The estimated scientific results: research articles accepted in scientific journals indexed in international databases, submission of at least one book proposal related to the theme of the project for publication at a prestigious international publishing house, editing two special issues of the international journal Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies (indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection - ESCI) dedicated to the topic of the research project, organizing one large-scale international conference and two smaller workshops to initiate international debate and to consolidate the scientific paradigm promoted in the research project, creating a website, recording and making publicly available (on a You Tube Channel linked to the website) some of the guest lectures, presentations at the workshops and at the conference.
Duration of the program: 1 June 2022 – 31 December 2024.
THE RESEARCH TEAM:
Principal Investigator (PI): ÁGNES PETHŐ, PhD, Professor of Film Studies
Members of the research team:
HAJNAL KIRÁLY, PhD, experienced researcher
JUDIT PIELDNER, PhD, Associate Professor (Post-doc researcher)
MELINDA BLOS-JÁNI, PhD, Assistant Professor (Post-doc researcher)
KATALIN SÁNDOR, PhD, Assistant Professor (Post-doc researcher)
KAMILLA SIMOR, PhD student
UNIVERSITATEA SAPIENTIA
Universitatea „Sapientia” este o instituție autonomă a maghiarilor din România, care și-a definit principala menire în a-i asigura acestei comunităţi naţionale o educaţie şi o viaţă ştiinţifică la un nivel profesional recunoscut.
Facultatea de Științe și Arte, Cluj-Napoca
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Tel.: +40-364-401-458
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E-mail: office@kv.sapientia.ro