This is an unbearably pretentious entry, and willingly so. I need a place to just pretend that I'm talking about my work and not formally doing it .. .it helps a lot ... i dunno why ... so here ... this is what i'm working on ... and I would LOVE any sources anyone can think of, or any suggestions ...
I am writing three papers on horror movies at the moment. The first focuses on the use of violence, and though not specifically about horror movies (Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus is one of my examples), it features them integrally (specifically slasher movies). I want to look at violence as art, violence as play, and violence as escape from the constrained body (body as art). I want to look at instances of violence in, mostly, film, as being ways in which the individual is allowed to see somebody experiment with the body and do different things with it. I'm not certain how I'm going to make it conclude without sounding as though I simply want people to go around fucking other people up. *shrug* I'll worry about that later.
The second paper is on horror movies as a being a space for play. It's related to sections of the first but focuses more on theorists (Huizinga, the Situationists, Weber, and Lefebvre) who look at play as political action. I want to begin to understand horror movies as situations in which the viewer is allowed to participate in things which are forbidden in real life. Not only the obvious (killing wantonly anyone you dislike - I'm thinking here of Shaun killing his obnoxious flatmate in Shaun of the Dead and of all the dead cops in so many other horror movies - but also organizing society (albeit small societies) according to the wants and desires of the individuals which constitute those societies (i.e.: anarchism). I also want this paper to focus on the sexual element in horror movies, a place where desires that would be considered dangerous and deviant in mainstream society (that is, desires that involve violence or domination) can be seen and enjoyed.
The third is on ghosts in Adorno. It's a sort of traditional Marxian paper (gag) that I just want to use as resume fodder (even though it focuses on suicide). I'm trying to argue that suicide can be seen as one of the only forms of resistance to totalized capitalism (and the state) ... but that that's not a good thing. I'm not particularly interested in the last paper, but I'm using ghost movies to examine people's desire to die.
I am writing three papers on horror movies at the moment. The first focuses on the use of violence, and though not specifically about horror movies (Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus is one of my examples), it features them integrally (specifically slasher movies). I want to look at violence as art, violence as play, and violence as escape from the constrained body (body as art). I want to look at instances of violence in, mostly, film, as being ways in which the individual is allowed to see somebody experiment with the body and do different things with it. I'm not certain how I'm going to make it conclude without sounding as though I simply want people to go around fucking other people up. *shrug* I'll worry about that later.
The second paper is on horror movies as a being a space for play. It's related to sections of the first but focuses more on theorists (Huizinga, the Situationists, Weber, and Lefebvre) who look at play as political action. I want to begin to understand horror movies as situations in which the viewer is allowed to participate in things which are forbidden in real life. Not only the obvious (killing wantonly anyone you dislike - I'm thinking here of Shaun killing his obnoxious flatmate in Shaun of the Dead and of all the dead cops in so many other horror movies - but also organizing society (albeit small societies) according to the wants and desires of the individuals which constitute those societies (i.e.: anarchism). I also want this paper to focus on the sexual element in horror movies, a place where desires that would be considered dangerous and deviant in mainstream society (that is, desires that involve violence or domination) can be seen and enjoyed.
The third is on ghosts in Adorno. It's a sort of traditional Marxian paper (gag) that I just want to use as resume fodder (even though it focuses on suicide). I'm trying to argue that suicide can be seen as one of the only forms of resistance to totalized capitalism (and the state) ... but that that's not a good thing. I'm not particularly interested in the last paper, but I'm using ghost movies to examine people's desire to die.