The Impossible David Lynch

Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-0-231-13954-0
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 486 g

Reihe: Film and Culture Series

Todd McGowan launches a provocative exploration of weirdness and fantasy in David Lynch's groundbreaking oeuvre. He studies Lynch's talent for blending the bizarre and the normal to emphasize the odd nature of normality itself. Hollywood is often criticized for distorting reality and providing escapist fantasies, but in Lynch's movies, fantasy becomes a means through which the viewer is encouraged to build a revolutionary relationship with the world.

Considering the filmmaker's entire career, McGowan examines Lynch's play with fantasy and traces the political, cultural, and existential impact of his unique style. Each chapter discusses the idea of impossibility in one of Lynch's films, including the critically acclaimed Blue Velvet and The Elephant Man; the densely plotted Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive; the cult favorite Eraserhead; and the commercially unsuccessful Dune. McGowan engages with theorists from the "golden age" of film studies (Christian Metz, Laura Mulvey, and Jean-Louis Baudry) and with the thought of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Hegel. By using Lynch's weirdness as a point of departure, McGowan adds a new dimension to the field of auteur studies and reveals Lynch to be the source of a new and radical conception of fantasy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mcgowan, Todd

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgattungen, Filmgenre
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Einzelne Filmschauspieler, Filmregisseure, Drehbuchautoren
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmtheorie, Filmanalyse

Inhaltsverzeichnis

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Sacrificing One's Head for an Eraser2. The Integration of the Impossible Object in The Elephant Man3. Dune and the Path to Salvation4. Fantasizing the Father in Blue Velvet5. The Absence of Desire in Wild at Heart6. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me7. Finding Ourselves on a Lost Highway8. The Ethics of Fantasizing in The Straight Story9. Navigating Mulholland Drive, David Lynch's Panegyric to HollywoodConclusion: The Ethics of FantasyNotesIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Todd McGowan is associate professor of English at the University of Vermont.