Surviving Politics: André Bazin and Aesthetic Bad Faith by Syed Feroz Hassan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Screen Arts and Cultures) in the University of Michigan 2017 Doctoral Committee: Professor Johannes von Moltke, Chair Emeritus Professor Richard Abel Professor Dudley Andrew Professor Daniel Herwitz Associate Professor Matthew Solomon [André] had a very precise and clever political mind, and for me his criticism was political, but within a framework so much broader than his Stalinist opponents that it included an aesthetic dimension which escaped them. - Chris Marker (quoted in Dudley Andrew, André Bazin) But can we be sure of being clear-headed with regards to “social” cinema when we are unjust with “non-committed” cinema? - André Bazin, “Cinéma et engagement,” Esprit (April 1957) Syed Feroz Hassan
[email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9990-4146 © Syed Feroz Hassan 2017 Dedication In memory of my parents, Shaher Bano Razvi and Syed Mohammed Abu Sayeed ii Acknowledgments I would not have been able to see this dissertation through if not for the support, advice, and encouragement of a long list of people. Johannes von Moltke has been a truly generous and patient advisor, pushing for clarity, and helping to contain the spiraling mode in which I tend pursue my research. I have been very privileged to learn from his own work on Siegfried Kracauer. It would be thoroughly far-fetched to think that I arrive anywhere close to the precision and lucidity of his own argumentation, but if this work has any coherence it is strictly the result of the critical interlocution he has offered over the years.