call for proposals 13 eng

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR ISSUE 13

THE CORPSE AS A FIGURE: THE AESTHETICS AND POLITICS OF DEAD BODIES IN THE HISTORY OF CINEMA

French film theorist Jean-Baptiste Thoret has argued that the most obvious precedent of gore in cinema is the assassination of JFK. The president’s lifeless body, moving forward inside his convertible, would become a foundational image of the new American cinema. This issue of Cinema Comparat/ive Cinema will address the representation of corpses in the history of cinema. We take the hypothesis that no piece regarding death is arbitrary, since the ultimate fears surrounding death are based in the era in which it is created — for instance, Frankenstein in the era of scientific progress, or zombies in the era of AIDS, are the expression of different fears accompanying different kinds of corpses. In this way, we will consider the historical construction of a society’s collective feeling about dead bodies, represented in its popular works. The intention of this proposal is to contribute to an anthropological approach of both national cinemas and their genres, based on the cinematographic representation with which each era, and each mode of filmmaking, has worked with the figure of the corpse.

The motif of the corpse and its representation in cinema is perhaps most crucial in those productions from countries in the throes of wars or dictatorships, or in transitional phases — while those fiction corpses evoke the real ones, questions of representation in relation to the corpse may also help to revise inherited ways of narrating historical crises.

From these hypotheses we wish to ask ourselves such questions as: Are there any common patterns in the different filmic expressions of corpses? Is the representation of the central corpse in Rope or The Trouble with Harry by Hitchcock qualitatively disctinct from the one in Three Songs of Lenin by Dziga Vertov, for instance? How has every canon or cinematographic movement interpreted this motif? Is there any kind of classical/modern divide in cinema regarding the representation of corpses? Is there any specific poetics in cinema for the casualties of wars or dictatorships? Is there any direct relationship between the most popular corpses in history and the imaginary in cinema that follows them? Are the corpses of Kennedy, Lenin, Evita Perón, Aldo Moro, Franco, Che Guevara or Laura Palmer the promoters of significant and unique treatments in cinema?

Those interested can send their proposals to an extent of 500 words to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. along with 2 central images for the research, a list of five bibliographical sources and a short biography of 100 words. Deadline: April 10^th, 2018.