Grand-Guignol cinema and the horror genre : sinister tableaux of dread, corporeality and the senses / Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

DeGiglio-Bellemare, Mario, 1965- author.

Series:

Anthem Series on Exploitation and Industry in World Cinema

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Théâtre du Grand-Guignol--History.

Théâtre du Grand-Guignol.

Horror films--History and criticism.

Horror films.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (260 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

London : Anthem Press, 2023.

Summary:

<i>Grand-Guignol Cinema and the Horror Genre</i> traces important contributions of the Parisian Grand-Guignol theatre's Golden Age as theoretical considerations of embodiment and affect in the development of horror cinema in the twentieth century. This study traces key components of the Grand-Guignol stage as a means to explore the immersive and corporeal aspects of horror cinema from the sound period to today. The book is a means to explore the Grand-Guignol not only as a historical place and genre, but also, theoretically, as a conceptual framework that opens up an affective mapping of Grand-Guignol attractions in cinema. <br><br>This study's restoration of a long Grand-Guignol tradition in cinema makes it a significant contribution to new theorizations of horror. It brings seemingly disparate traditions into conversation, as American, Canadian, French, and Italian cinema are all important sites for thinking through cinematic embodiment. These four countries have developed their own important genres and movements of Grand-Guignol cinema: the slasher, the 'French Films of Sensation,' Canadian 'body horror' and the giallo. The Grand-Guignol famously operated in a dead-end of Chaptal Street, in the Pigalle district of Paris; this study offers affective and corporeal readings that open up new byways beyond the dead-end of psychoanalytic readings that continues to be dominant in horror genre scholarship.

Contents:

Introduction; Grand-Guignol Cinema and the Senses; Eyes without a Face, Attractions, Affect, and Facial Trauma; 1. The Grand-Guignol Theatre: A Place; A Short History of the Theatre and Spatial Ecologies of Dread in The Hitch-Hiker and Shivers ; 2. Grotesque Carnivals of Stubborn Aurality; Murders in Rue Morgue, Freaks, and The Black Cat ; Eating Discourse in Early Talkie Horror Film; 3. The Dreadful Sight of Corpses in the Ruins of Modernity; The Body Snatcher, Mad Love, and The Blood of the Beasts ; Surgical Sadists under Censorship in pre and WWII Cinema; 4. Erotic Abattoirs of Bad Taste; Fascination, Grapes of Death, and Salò, or 120 Days of Sodom ; Unproductive Potlatch in Exploitation Cinema; 5. French Colonial Skinning; Trouble Every Day, Sombre, and In My Skin ; Affect and Becoming-Wound in the Cinema of Sensation; Conclusion; Blood and Black Lace and Psycho ; Queer Drag Performativity, Tactile Dread, and Deadly Smells.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 15 Nov 2023).

ISBN:

9781839980978

1839980974

9781839980985

1839980982

OCLC:

1369656342