Ayn Rand and the Possibilities of an Objectivist Aesthetics of Cinema

Screen of Vision: Ayn Rand and the Possibilities of an Objectivist Aesthetics of Cinema Kyle Barrowman School of Journalism, Media, and Culture Cardiff University This thesis is submitted to Cardiff University in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2018 Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgments iv Preface ix Introduction – Towards an Objectivist Aesthetics of Cinema 1 1. Poststructuralism and the History of Film Studies 39 2. Objectivism and the Future of Film Studies 100 Conclusion – Approaching Atlantis 154 References 166 Abstract This thesis is my attempt to establish a foundation, based on the philosophy of Objectivism as it was developed and elaborated by the Russian-American novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, for the construction of an Objectivist aesthetics of cinema. After con textualizing and explicating Rand’s philosophy, I make the case that, propaedeutic to the construction of a new aesthetics of cinema, it is incumbent upon film scholars to refute the irrational and immoral philosophical premises that have long been destroying the philosophy of art in general and the discipline of film studies in particular. Due to the troubling combination of its contemporaneity, extremism, and considerable influence, I focus initially on the philosophical school of poststructuralism – which I contend has, since the 1960s, served as the default philosophical foundation for film scholars – before ultimately moving on to refute what I call the Kantian aesthetic tradition, of which I demonstrate poststructuralism is a deadly symptom. Upon clearing away this philosophical debris, I set about arguing for the probative value of an Objectivist aesthetics of cinema by reigniting long-dormant debates about the validity of interpretation and the role of evaluation in film criticism. In so doing, I hope to demonstrate the value of an aesthetic orientation which I term aesthetic perfectionism, for it is my contention that perfectionism – which has recently emerged at the heart of key developments in film studies through the work of Stanley Cavell, which I argue motivated Rand’s philosophical enterprise, and which I argue should motivate the philosophical enterprises of all scholars who strive to do justice to all that the cinema has to offer – is the key to unlocking an Aesthetics of Life capable of transforming the discipline of film studies. iii Acknowledgments To try to thank everyone who has contributed to my being here, writing these acknowledgments for this thesis, is a task that seems to me to be beyond Sisyphean. It is simply an impossible task to thank everyone who deserves to be thanked and to adequately express to everyone how thankful I am. There are, however, two groups of people for whom the more-than-Sisyphean effort required of me to accomplish this task has been earned. The first group of people that I would like to thank are the people in my professional life. Of course, this group of people extends very widely to encompass the professors who introduced me to and guided me down the path of film studies during my time as a BA student at Columbia College Chicago and an MA student at the University of Chicago – professors such as Gary Fox, Dan Dinello, Dan Sutherland, Laurence Knapp, Jeff Smith, and Ron Falzone at Columbia and Tom Gunning, D.N. Rodowick, and Dan Morgan at Chicago. Professors Knapp, Smith, and Falzone in particular inspired me at a crucial turning point in my academic life; I would like to imagine having provided at least a meager return on their investments in me. But, in the interest of brevity, I will try to limit myself to the people who have entered my professional life since I arrived here in Cardiff. First, I must thank the School of Journalism, Media, and Culture (JOMEC) at Cardiff University for awarding me the International Student Scholarship, which allowed me to come here all the way from Chicago, Illinois to write this thesis. During my time in Cardiff, I had the good fortune to encounter a number of people who helped me to enjoy my time here. The most important of those people I will list alphabetically. At one time or another, in one way or another, these fellow PhD travelers provided me with much-needed personal and/or professional support. I trust they all know why their names are on this list: Gemini Anderson, Hiu M. Chan, Evelina Kazakevičiūtė , Idil Osman, Sumit Mistry, Matthew Pudner, James Rendell, Qays Stetkevych, and Rebecca Wright. Special thanks to Hiu and Qays for reading and commenting on portions of this thesis and to Evelina for reading and commenting on this thesis in full. iv I must also single out for special thanks my supervisor, Professor Paul Bowman. In the fall of 2012, I had just come out of my undergrad with my BA. I was looking at six months of waiting before I could even apply to schools to pursue my MA and a year before I could start studying anywhere. In the meantime, I was working 40+ hour weeks at a job at which I could literally feel my mind decaying. It was during this intellectually frustrating period in my life that I happened upon a call for papers for somethin g called the JOMEC Journal in which the topic was “martial arts studies.” Earlier in the year, I had read Professor Bowman’s book Theorizing Bruce Lee , and, while I published an essay on Bruce Lee in which I took a few shots at him and it, I was pleasantly surprised to find an academic who actually took seriously the impact and the legacy of Bruce Lee. So, I was excited to find this call for papers, and all the more so coming from Professor Bowman. But the deadline for abstracts was fast approaching. With nothing to lose, I decided to gamble: Not only did I whip up a full, 6000-word essay, I even included a section where I doubled down on my criticisms of Theorizing Bruce Lee . I did not dare hope that my essay would be accepted; and yet, there was a part of me that was testing the waters. I tend to gauge how well I will be able to get on with someone by seeing how much of my pushing they can deal with, and I think there was a part of me that wanted to see what kind of guy this Bruce Lee scholar really was. As it turned out, he was a hell of a guy. Professor Bowman not only accepted my essay, he encouraged my criticisms, opened a dialogue with me on all things Bruce Lee and martial arts, and has unfailingly championed me and my work ever since, even when it became clear that my thesis had broadened beyond the scope of Bruce Lee and martial arts. Good supervisors are hard to come by, but a better supervisor is impossible to come by. I am not going to sit here and pretend that the International Student Scholarship was not incentive for me to come here to Cardiff, but make no mistake: The reason that I decided to come here was to work with Professor Bowman. And the time that I have spent working out with him the ideas that comprise this thesis, as well as working with him to build the interdisciplinary field of martial arts studies, including hosting the annual Martial Arts Studies Conference in JOMEC and editing the Martial Arts Studies journal, has helped me to envision, from his example, the way that I hope to be able to conduct myself as an educator and a scholar. I will always be grateful to him for that v The second group of people that I would like to thank are the people in my personal life. Once again, this is a group of friends and family that extends very widely. Going back to my childhood, I think of the time spent with my friends Brent Concialdi, Dan ny Gius, Alex Handwerker, Steve McKiernan, Brad Schiller, Jordan Shafran, and Zack Strauss – friends who were willing to spend their Friday nights in what, looking back, I realize was my first film class, in which I show ed them Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon ,P Steve McQueen in The Getaway , and Robert De Niro in Heat . Why I was lucky enough to have friends who were willing to put up with my level of psychotic movie obsession, I will never know, but one thing that I do know is that the truest words in film history are the last words of the film Stand by Me : “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve.” And then, extending to my family, there is my grandfather, Joseph Barrowman, an architect and an early fan of Ayn Rand who actua lly helped organize Rand’s speaking engagements in the Chicago area in the 1960s. Fast-forward to Christmas 2016 and he had a massive giftbox of Rand reading material for me to take back with me to Cardiff as I was preparing to finish my thesis. But, again, in the interest of brevity, I will limit myself to the people who have been a constant presence in my life during the time that I have been working to complete my PhD. First, my friend, Alex Handwerker. One of the members of my inaugural film class, I have known Alex for nearly two decades now, and we have been watching and talking about movies for all twenty years. Though we have often been separated geographically – first during the years that Alex was serving in Afghanistan as a United States Marine and second during the years that I have been here in Cardiff – our friendship has never faltered.

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