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Genre and feeling: Pathos Scene and Affect Dramaturgy

In order to trace the (historical) dynamics of genres, the concept of the pathos scenes was created. They denote genre-specific standard scenes which can be identified and, respectively, have specific affective qualities attributed to them. Within their order throughout the course of a film, the pathos scenes each form different affective dramaturgies (macro level), the historical transformations of which remain precisely describable. The concept was developed on the basis of the US-American war film and was adapted for a research project regarding the Turkish-German cinema, which also developed a corpus-specific taxonomy of pathos scenes.

Mobilization of Emotions in War Films

In two research projects on the mobilization of emotions  in the US-American war film, the eMAEX-approach was developed and, based thereon, an extensive database was created as a foundation for comparative historical studies of the war film genre.

Project “Mobilization of Emotions in War Films”
(Clusters of Excellence Languages of Emotion, 2008–2011)

The project investigated the strategies of affective mobilization at the level of staging of audiovisual images using the  example of the classical Hollywood war film. Therefore a poetics of affect of the genre was worked out which includes eight recurring dramaturgical standard figurations – the pathos scenes. These interact within the (affective-)dramaturgical structure of the films and respectively address and form culturally specific emotional realms and a sense of community. Project “Staging images of war as a mediated experience of community”
(DFG, 2011–2016)

The project comparatively investigated the poetics of affect of the US-American war film in its dynamic interactions with war reporting in other audio-visual media from a historical perspective. Therefore the pathos scenes and their affect-dramaturgical ordering were comparatively analyzed on the basis of film examples from all epochs of the genre as well as contemporary news media, and described as historically specific affect-economical reworkings of a media-based sense of community.

Database: War Film

The database includes entries pertaining to over 33 feature films, documentaries, TV-series, and news segments. The films are segmented on two levels: into scenes and, in certain cases, into units of expressive movement (EMUs) on the micro level. The scenes, which are provided with a title, as well as the EMUs with a short text describing the scenic patterns are each available as clips in a multimedia-based presentation.

The scenes are assigned pathos categories which correspond to the eight pathos scenes of the developed poetic of affect and are defined by narrative constellations, aesthetic strategies, and areas of affect.

For every film there is a diagram, which graphically displays its affect dramaturgy, that is, the order of the pathos scenes within the temporal progress as a graphical pattern.

For an analysis of GUNG HO! as a classic Hollywood war film, see the following article in the first issue of mediaesthetics: "The Poetics of Mobilization: GUNG HO!" (Kappelhoff, Grotkopp, Gaertner 2016).

Further reading:

Turkish-German sense of community

A research project focusing on films which can be summarized under the term „German-Turkish cinema“, investigated these films as a coherent discourse in their relation to processes of community building and asked which function the audio-visual images fulfill within these processes.

Project "Migrant Melodramas and Culture Clash Comedies: Creating a Turkish-German Sense of Commonality"
(SFB 1171 2015–2019)

How are films, TV-series, and web videos working on producing and modulating a Turkish-German sense of community? These various media were analyzed as tactical means of appropriation – of dominant forms of the western entertainment culture, as well as beyond that – with regards to the affect-economical dimensions of circulating patterns of staging.

In theoretical engagement, the research questions of the project were addressed in discussions of a focus group with filmmakers from the field on the one hand, on the other, they were addressed through a comparative corpus analysis identifying pathos scenes from the Turkish-German cinema.

Building on the eMAEX-approach and drawing from the research on the war film, audio-visual patterns of staging were taxonomically qualified regarding specific affect domains (joy, sadness, thrill, etc.). As a result, five pathos categories could be worked out in the conflict field of inclusion and exclusion: Entering (into the unknown), navigation (harmonic involvement in a familiar/misunderstood environment), being singled out (from a community), separation (being separated from a communally shared context), as well as being crowded (being overwhelmed by surroundings). These pathos categories, completed with narrative patterns, topoi, and motives within pathos scenes, were described in regards to their concrete expressive design on the micro level as well as their dramaturgical relevance on the macro level. Their aim is not to comprehensively grasp every affect dramaturgy within the heterogeneous corpus, but rather to outline specific lines of conflict of the discursivity of the Turkish-German cinema.

Further Reading: