Am I Truly Feeling This? Quasi-Emotions and Quasi-Values in Cinematic Experience

This article aims to show how Husserl’s work on Phantasy, Image Consciousness, and Memory can offer insights towards (i) a philosophical account of the relation between images and reality; (ii) a phenomenological clarification of concepts such as “quasi-emotions.” I will primarily be discussing this issue with reference to cinematic images. In the first section, I endeavour to give a phenomenological account of how belief can intervene in our experience of images. In the second section, also taking into account the well-known “Paradox of Fiction,” I will address the issue concerning the relationship between emotions aroused by images we believe to be presenting real subjects and those elicited by fictional images. In the third and last section, I will attempt to take the analysis one step further by calling attention to the relationship between fictional emotions and values, bringing out the issue concerning the legitimacy of distinguishing between “genuine values” experienced in reality and “quasi-values” experienced through fiction.