Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Fiction, Imagination, and Early Cinema

Objective

"The project investigates two closely interrelated issues: what is the role of imagination in early cinema and what does it mean for a representational work to be fictional? Specifically, it asks what the criteria are according to which we categorize texts as fictional and what counts as proof for reconstructing the experience of historical spectatorship. The project innovatively proposes that the period between 1880 and 1915 provides a unique opportunity for construing how a representational medium becames employed in the production of fictions and the crucial role the discourse on imaginary engagement plays in this process. In other words, the project asks why we engage some films as fictions and other as documentaries despite the fact that they are both based on actuality material – photographs. For instance, why, when watching Méliès’ 1898 The Astronomer’s Dream or the Man in the Moon, do we nowadays regularly say that we are watching an astronomer whose gazing at the moon turns into a series of fantastical mishaps? Why do we engage such a film as a fiction rather than as a documentary of actors performing in front of painted sets? Especially if during the early era, such films were regularly seen as instances of “canned theater”, i.e. as documentaries of theatrical performances.
Methodologically, the project is highly unique in its twofold approach. On the one hand, the proposal draws on analytic philosophy to articulate the key concepts informing the inquiry – fiction and imagination. Fiction, crucially, is construed as “any mandated imagining/make-believe"" following the work of Kendall Walton. On the other, the project applies the new film history method to late 19th and early 20th century sources such as trade press, catalogues, lectures, and more general discourse on cinema and adjacent cultural practices to determine what place the notions of fiction and imagination played in the production, promotion, exhibition, and reception of early cinema."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2016

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 172 800,00
Address
SINT PIETERSNIEUWSTRAAT 25
9000 GENT
Belgium

See on map

Region
Vlaams Gewest Prov. Oost-Vlaanderen Arr. Gent
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 172 800,00
My booklet 0 0