A Body of Vision

by Elder, Bruce; Elder, R. Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780889202764
• ISBN10: 0889202761
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-01
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ Pr

Summary

In his new book A Body of Vision, R. Bruce Elder situates contemporary poetic and cinematic body images in their cultural context.

Elder examines how recent artists have tried to recognize and to convey primordial forms of experiences. He proposes the daring thesis that in their efforts to do so, artists have resorted to gnostic models of consciousness. He argues that the attempt to convey these primordial modes of awareness demands a different conception of artistic meaning from any of those that currently dominate contemporary critical discussion. By reworking theories and speech in highly original ways, Elder formulates this new conception.

The works of Brakhage, Artaud, Schneeman, Cohen and others lie naked under Elder's razor-sharp dissecting knife and he exposes the essence of their work, cutting deeply into the themes and theses from which the works are derived. His remarks on the gaps in contemporary critical practices will likely become the focus of much debate.

Table of Contents

With Gratitude	v	(2)
Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(20)
The Human Dilemma	21	(330)
The Anxious Body of Shame, Disgust, or Appalling Death: Films by Bruce Conner	24	(12)
The Troubling Body of Sexual Difference: Williard Maas's The Geography of the Body	36	(29)
The Complexities of Identification--Walter Gutman and the Body Remade as Whole	65	(5)
The Body as Sacred--The Films of James Broughton, Especially The Golden Positions	70	(15)
The Body and the Cosmos--The Films of Ed Emshwiller	85	(12)
First Digression: The Theory of Transformation and Its Importance to Understanding the Uniqueness of Artistic Meaning	97	(19)
Ed Emshwiller's Mixed Mode of Cinema Contrasted with the Lyrical Film	116	(24)
The Body as the Universe in Stan Brakhage's Early Films	140	(3)
The Body Electric: Of Wilhelm Reich and Antonin Artaud--Laying the Groundwork for Carolee Schneemann's Body Art	143	(48)
Second Digression: A Mystical View of the Body under the Pervasive Influence of Gnosticism--Laying the Groundwork for Leonard Cohen's Writings on the Body and Carolee Schneemann's Films and Performances	191	(19)
Leonard Cohen's Gnosticism and Its Influence on His Conception of the Body	210	(13)
The Influence of Gnosticism on the Writings of Antonin Artaud	223	(10)
The Body of Gnostic Energy in the Work of Carolee Schneemann	233	(43)
The Body of Transcendental Flesh--The Films of James Herbert	276	(18)
The Cognitive Body--The Films of Amy Greenfield and Another View of the Films of Stan Brakhage	294	(22)
The Pneumatic Body--The Films of Andrew Noren	316	(35)
Notes	351	(30)
Bibliography	381	(4)
Index	385