Modes of Representing Nature in Films
The paper is based on the author’s earlier text, which dealt with the question of how animals are represented in films. In it, the author identified four main modes – anthropomorphism, anthropocentrism, automorphism, and “bizarreness” – and noted that the proposed classification does not claim to be either universal or complete. Building on this classification, this paper delineates animism, reification, and authenticity as the three main modes in which nature is represented in films, again claiming that the classification is not exhaustive. The paper also attempts to draw a distinction between films that focus on animals and those that focus on nature. Finally, drawing on Kant’s analysis of the sublime, the paper claims that the portrayal of the impossibility of a true representation of nature in (human) films would perhaps be the most truthful representation of nature.
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