Body Shots

by Auerbach, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9780520252936
• ISBN10: 0520252934
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-10-29
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

This original and compelling book places the body at the center of cinema's first decade of emergence and challenges the idea that for early audiences, the new medium's fascination rested on visual spectacle for its own sake. Instead, as Jonathan Auerbach argues, it was the human form in motion that most profoundly shaped early cinema. Situating his discussion in a political and historical context, Auerbach begins his analysis with films that reveal striking anxieties and preoccupations about persons on public display--both exceptional figures, such as 1896 presidential candidate William McKinley, and ordinary people caught by the movie camera in their daily routines. The result is a sharp, unique, and groundbreaking way to consider the turn-of-the-twentieth-century American incarnation of cinema itself.

Author Biography

Jonathan Auerbach is Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction: Body, Movement, Space	p. 1
Bodies in Public
Looking In: McKinley at Home	p. 15
Looking Out: Visualizing Self-Consciousness	p. 42
Interlude. The Vocal Gesture: Sounding the Origins of Cinema	p. 63
Bodies in Space
Chasing Film Narrative	p. 85
Windows 1900; or, Life of an American Fireman	p. 104
Conclusion: The Stilled Body	p. 124
Notes	p. 137
Bibliography	p. 179
Index	p. 195
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.