Impassioned Views: Offense and Fandom as Postcolonial Cinematic Experience

• Applicant: Salma Siddique, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies ; Asian Studies
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 451347830

'Impassioned views' places together two competing visions- the love and the fear of films, to understand their diverse forms and mutual borrowings. It conceptualises affective and emotional responses to cinema involving fans and offended groups on a spectrum of spectatorship. 'Impassioned Views' treats cinephilic and cinephobic acts in a commensurate manner, asserting that each represents the passionate engagement of audiences with films, filmmakers and ancillary media. With postcolonial South Asia as ist field of focus, the research re-evaluates new participatory cultures and the mobilization of 'hurt sentiments' in the last decade of populist consolidation. The completed empirical work reveals that both cinephilic and cinephobic acts impact cinema and ist commemoration. Cinephobic acts can implicate themselves in the form and claims of the films they seek to oppose, as evidenced by film controversies. Derivative works of fans can be idiosyncratic but also represent a strong desire for the moral upliftment of the fan community. Delineating these relationships between films and their impassioned spectators in a field of affective force is the key objective of this study.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants