The Cinematic Body

by Steven Shaviro

In The Cinematic Body, Steven Shaviro proposes a radical new approach to film viewing. Moving between Jerry Lewis and Andy Warhol, between Fassbinder's gay sex icons and George Romero's flesh-eating zombies, The Cinematic Body cuts across disciplinary boundaries and seeks to engage new currents in critical thought.

Shaviro radically critiques the Lacanian model currently popular in film theory and film studies, arguing that model's obsessive emphasis on the phallus, castration anxiety, sadistic mastery, ideology, and the structure of the signifier. In this groundbreaking volume, Shaviro effectively communicates a sense of the inescapable ambivalences and intensities of contemporary culture, ultimately affirming a thoroughly postmodern sensibility

CONTENTS: Film Theory and Visual Fascination: Appendix - Deleuze and Guttari's Theory of Sexuality * Contagious Allegories: George Romero * Comedies of Abjection: Jerry Lewis * Bodies of Fear: David Cronenberg * Masculinity, Spectacle, and the Body of 'Querelle' * Warhol's Bodies * A Note on Bresson * Conclusions

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Theory, Psychoanalysis, Art, Bodies

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este livro foi um belo achado garimpando no sebo A Desgustadora de Livros, de Ribeirão Preto. Achei que ele tinha potencial, mas não que eu encontraria tantas reflexões que fazem eco na minha pesquisa. Steve Shaviro analisa vários filmes com temáticas ou autorias semelhantes nos capítulos deste livro, mas o que achei mais pertinente para mim é que ele tem um olhar de gênero, do queer sobre esses filmes. Por exemplo, o capítulo que mais gostei foi a análise de Querelle, de Fassbinder. Ele investiga muito sobre a condição da sexualidade desviante em filmes de Bresson, de Warhol, de George Romero, de Conenberg e até de Jerry Lewis. Ele insiste em diversos desses capítulos que a relação que temos, seja entre gêneros, seja sobre a sexualidade ou sobre os corpos que assistimos no cinema, tem a ver com sadismo e masoquismo. Fala que é a partir disso que estabelecemos nossas relações com o mundo ficcional e com o mundo real, principalmente no que se refere à condição dos corpos carnais ou projetados. Mas o livro é muito mais que isso e realmente me fascinou de uma forma que não esperava.

[Vince · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bombastic, energetic and polemic. Well written and interesting. Stylistically exciting and fun, but in many ways misses the point. You may be asking, what's the point of this review? Well I'd tell you, if this book had one. But maybe...maybe...that's the point?!?111!?


Imagine if I had left the top half of this review blank. Yeah, so the top half of every page in this book is blank. Maybe the author left the point up there?

Really though, the book is thought provoking, and I think it's a worthwhile read. But really, it doesn't say a whole lot. And the author agrees with me here, he's written what amounts to a retraction of his book.

[Claire Casso · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially loved the "Night of the Living Dead" critique.

[Erick Felinto · Rating 5 out of 5]

A manifest for new forms of cultural analysis!

[Cary Stough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decided to try out Shaviro for two reasons: primarily influenced by writer Kara Keeling's brilliant expansion on shaviro's essay on Grace Jones; and this book specifically because of the chapters on Jerry Lewis and Cronenberg, which were both so startlingly clear-eyed and lessons in love. Also, I don't hate the concept of abjection as much anymore, in fact, I may even embrace it (as one only can do) whole-naked-heartedly.

[Alejandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very personal book as it is defined from the beginning. Shaviro is concise and marks the point to understand that the somatic reactions that we have when watching a movie are important, they are about power operating in our bodies.
The critics that he does and the concepts that he uses to explain is thinking are well constructed and worked.

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb readings of lots of things, including Bresson, Jerry Lewis, and George Romero, especially.

The main thrust of the book is also sound and very important.