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Title
Modern supernatural and the beginnings of cinema.
Edition
1st ed. 2017.
ISBN
9781137583710 (electronic book)
1137583711 (electronic book)
1137583703
9781137583703
Imprint
[Place of publication not identified] : Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource
Call Number
PN1995.9.S8 L34 2017
Dewey Decimal Classification
301
Summary
This study sees the nineteenth century supernatural as a significant context for cinema’s first years. The book takes up the familiar notion of cinema as a “ghostly,” “spectral” or “haunted” medium and asks what made such association possible. Examining the history of the projected image and supernatural displays, psychical research and telepathy, spirit photography and X-rays, the skeletons of the danse macabre and the ghostly spaces of the mind, it uncovers many lost and fascinating connections. The Modern Supernatural and the Beginnings of Cinema locates film’s spectral affinities within a history stretching back to the beginning of screen practice and forward to the digital era. In addition to examining the use of supernatural themes by pioneering filmmakers like Georges Méliès and George Albert Smith, it also engages with the representations of cinema’s ghostly past in Guy Maddin’s recent online project Seances (2016). It is ideal for those interested in the history of cinema, the study of the supernatural and the pre-history of the horror film.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
1.Introduction
2. The Haunting of Film Theory
3. Light and Lies: Screen Practice and (Super-) Natural Magic
4. The Strange Case of George Albert Smith: Mesmerism, Psychical Research and Cinema
5. Aesthetics of Co-Registration: Spirit Photography, X-Rays and Cinema
6. Méliès’s Skeleton: Gender, Cinema’s Danse Macabre and the Erotics of Bone
7. Living Pictures at Will: Projecting Haunted Minds
8. Conclusion: Lost Worlds, Ghost Worlds. .
