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Abject Pleasures in the Cinematic
The Beautiful, Sexual Arousal, and Laughter
by Aaron Kerner
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Book Presentation:
Examines the cinematic strategies that elicit visceral pleasure in the face of content that is crass, politically problematic, or unethical
• Discusses the ways in which the cinematic elicits pleasurable sensations
• Emphasizes the pleasure drawn from abject content
• Focuses squarely on the visceral experience, as distinct from the emotional appeal of the cinematic
Abject Pleasures in the Cinematic examines the cinematic strategies that elicit visceral pleasure—tears, goosebumps, sexual arousal, laughter—even in the face of content that is crass, politically problematic, or unethical.
While there might be a progressive predisposition within our discipline, affect pledges no allegiance to any particular political inclination. Progressives, or progressive content, does not hold a monopoly on affect. The beautiful has no inherent bond to the good (i.e., morally good, or having cultural merit), rather it is an affective experience, and it might come to us in the most unlikely and unsavory places. Pornography, even with the most regressive content, wields the possibility to be sexually arousing even despite our own ethical objections. While well-intended academics routinely claim that watching people get hurt is not funny, and we might appreciate the gesture to cultivate our better angels, but such assertions do not necessarily align with our lived-experience.
About the Author:
Aaron Kerner is a Professor and the Director of the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University. His publications include a study of the stupid, Theorizing Stupid Media (2019)—exploring cinematic material that does not conform to existing narrative or genre categories. Kerner also published Extreme Cinema (2016). Kerner’s publications often reflect upon the affective potential of the cinematic.
Press Reviews:
We find it hard to talk about why we really enjoy movies. We swoon, shiver, laugh, and get aroused. But it can be embarrassing to confess to such responses, and difficult to describe them in words. Aaron Kerner addresses such dilemmas head-on in this brilliant book.
– Steven Shaviro, Wayne State University
Another of Kerner's incisive explorations of cinematic affect, Abject Pleasures in the Cinematic takes up the topics of the beautiful, sexual arousal, and laughter in a noble attempt to construct a paradigm shift. Kerner studies an extreme cinema that titillates and amuses, privileging the body as the recipient of non-rational allurements, somewhat akin to Noel Coward’s observation about how potent cheap music can be. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.
– T. Lindvall, CHOICE connect
Another of Kerner's incisive explorations of cinematic affect, Abject Pleasures in the Cinematic takes up the topics of the beautiful, sexual arousal, and laughter in a noble attempt to construct a paradigm shift. Kerner studies an extreme cinema that titillates and amuses, privileging the body as the recipient of non-rational allurements, somewhat akin to Noel Coward’s observation about how potent cheap music can be. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.– T. Lindvall, CHOICE connect
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
> From the same author:
> On a related topic:
Unveiling Desire (2018)
Fallen Women in Literature, Culture, and Films of the East
Dir. Devaleena Das and Colette Morrow
Subject: General
The Reader As Peeping Tom (2015)
Nonreciprocal Gazing in Narrative Fiction and Film
Subject: Sociology
In the Realm of Pleasure (1993)
Von Sternberg, Dietrich, and the Masochistic Aesthetic
Subject: Director > Josef von Sternberg
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