Formal Ontology And Cognitive Viewpoint Construction Perspective

David Bordwell(1947-),a famous American contemporary film theorist, is the founder and one of the representatives of the Neoformalism and Cognitivism. What’s more, he makes great contribution to the development of the American film theory since the1980s and gains fruitful research results. His research involves many aspects such as the history of film, case studies of areas and directors. As to the main line throughout his thirty years’film studies,"Poetics of Cinema" is undoubtedly the core and the most critical concept of his film theory.This thesis regards Bordwell’s Poetics of Cinema as the research object. Specifically, the thesis first analyzes the three aspects—the definition in the scope of middle-level study, the researching standpoints of formal ontology and the meaning of cognitive construction, which pointes out the inter-relation of the three aspects. Secondly, by Bordwell’s explorations in narrative and interpretive researches of films and history researches, the thesis gives a detailed study on the utilization of Poetics of Cinema in present research scales. In the following steps, the contradiction and disputation between Bordwell’s Poetics of Cinema and Grand Theoretical researches are discussed from the angles of formal ontology and meaning construction. Then, the core of disputation obtains corresponding analysis and appropriate comments following. On a full overview, the thesis ends with the conclusion about the theoretical advantages and disadvantages of Bordwell’s Poetics of Cinema, for the purpose of advocating the prosperity of theoretical researches on films with comprehensive attitude.This thesis considers that Poetics of Cinema can play a fundamental role in film study. From a particular viewpoint, its radical attitude towards Grand Theory can be regarded as corresponding strategies to win over theoretical speaking rights. Meanwhile, such attitude indeed has some restrictive and reflective functions in the trend of excess abstract and vagueness in Grand Theory study. However, there also exists certain risk of simplicity in Bordwell’s middle-level study either from the standpoint of formal ontology or the form of cognitive construction of meaning. In order to solve the multifaceted issues, the film research should be carried out with attitudes of inclusiveness and the comprehensive utilization of various theories.