@inbook{235cea5aa26947fe9178fe28e160e4eb,
title = "Metaphysics of Finitude: Der m{\"u}de Tod and the Crisis of Historicism",
abstract = "This chapter attempts to illuminate Der m{\"u}de Tod {\textquoteright}s philosophical dimensions by placing the film in constellation with Weimar intellectual history. It argues that Fritz Lang's film registered and responded to a “crisis of historicism” that was widely diagnosed in the Weimar era, as German‐speaking intellectuals confronted the aporias that entail from reflexive historical thinking. In the author's analysis, Der m{\"u}de Tod sought to counteract the atomizing and relativizing implications of nineteenth‐century historicism by positing what might be called a “metaphysics of finitude.” In proposing the crisis of historical thought as a key context for Lang's pioneering and influential film, the chapter diverges from Tom Gunning's reading of Der m{\"u}de Tod as a meditation on the narrative and visual possibilities of the cinematic medium. Not least, it suggests that Lang's film gains new resonances when interpreted as a response to contemporaneous historical‐philosophical questions.",
keywords = "Motion picture producers and directors, Lang, Fritz, 1890-1976",
author = "Nicholas Baer",
note = "Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index",
year = "2015",
doi = "10.1002/9781118587751.ch8",
language = "English",
isbn = "9781118587232",
series = "Wiley Blackwell Companions to Film Directors",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
pages = "141–160",
editor = "{McElhaney }, Joe",
booktitle = "A Companion to Fritz Lang",
}