Research On Documentary Aesthetic Experience In The Phenomenological Horizon

There is no other kind of art that can presents original image close to the world as vividly as documentary films do, and the people and things reflected by the image have always been physical existence. Documentary works from real life, fully mobilized our perceptual system. As the most "intuitive" art, it is born to be adapted to and waiting for the reflection of theory of phenomenological aesthetics.Researches on the essence of the aesthetic value, authenticity, subjectivity and objectivity and the recording" and "fictional" property of documentary films in view of traditional aesthetics, are inevitably in a dilemma caused by traditional metaphysical "dualism" thinking framework, the complexity of which, whereas, could be solved by phenomenological theory and method.In the field of phenomenology, its founder Husserl and the latecoming philosopher such as Heidegger, Gadamer, Geiger, Ingardden, Merleau-Ponty, Dufrenne and so on, all launched studies on the aesthetic issues in their own perspective, and developed a phenomenological theory of aesthetics. This provides a solid theoretical foundation for the studies undertaken by this thesis on documentary aesthetics.Considering that the phenomenology focus on awareness as the bases. this thesis centers on the aesthetic experience of documentaries. Although it mainly refers to the aesthetic experience phenomenonology of Dufrenne system, it was not confined to its theoretical framework. The Duchenne system only pays attention to the appreciator’s aesthetic experience system, but we should also gave full attention to the aesthetic experience of the creators. Two-dimensional expanding on the documentary aesthetic experience in terms of the author and audience is the main feature of this thesis. At the same time, the theoretical foundation of this thesis also includes Heidegger’s existentialism phenomenonology, Gadamer’s hermeneutic aesthetics, Geiger’s axiology aesthetics, the body aesthetics of Merleau-Ponty (Phenomenology of Perception Studies), Ingardden’s literature phenomenology. This paper seeks to digest different theoretical systems.In research on the documentary creator’s aesthetic experience, the thesis explores the connotation of the aesthetic subject "I" and the aesthetic object "Living World", and classified the object’s "intuitiveness" in documentary film production into three categories. They are "recording" as "current intuitiveness","fiction" as "current intuitiveness" and "nuncupation" as "compound intuitiveness". The author points out that the creative process of the documentary is also the process when the creator reconstructs the "mirror image living world". Reconstruction involved subjective "recycling" of " inner time object", fostering of "vacuous intention" of the audience in narration, as well as the choice of "material" and "structure".In the aesthetic experience research of the documentary viewers, the thesis classifies the structures of them into three levels:level one is "sound picture base material"; level two is "the flow of mirror image"; level three is the "philosophic implication". They correspond to three levels of phenomenology "mirror image consciousness". This paper argues that the aesthetic value of the documentary is a non-utilitarian value, and its core is the truth of human "existence", which is presented in the perception. Viewers’aesthetic attitude varies on documentary "intuitiveness", and it is divided into "ordinary intuitiveness" and "aesthetic intuitiveness", which inevitably leads to the distinction between aesthetic judgment and nonaesthetic judgment.This paper argues that the perfect state of documentary aesthetics is "fusion of horizons". The horizontal dimension is the fusion of the viewers. while the vertical dimension is historic, dynamic and constantly developing "fusion of horizons" in which "hermeneutic cycle" occurs. Documentary film shows the ontological characteristics as a serious "game" through repetitional aesthetic experience. The paper creatively makes a comprehensive and systematic theoretical analysis in the phenomenological horizon on documentary aesthetic experience, and strive to build tentative theoretical system of documentary aesthetic experience phenomenology. Even if this construction seems rough and shallow, I believe it can also serve as "a modest spur to induce others to come forward with valuable contributions".