The Politics of Insects: David Cronenberg's Cinema of Confrontation - Softcover

Wilson, Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1623563399 ISBN 13: 9781623563394

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013

Synopsis

Canadian film director David Cronenberg has long been a figure of artistic acclaim and public controversy. Bursting into view with a trio of shocking horror films in the 1970s, Cronenberg's work has become increasingly complex in its sensibilities and inward-looking in its concerns and themes. This trajectory culminates in the multiplex successes of his most recent films, which appear to conclude a straightforward evolutionary arc that begins in the cold outside of shock-horror and arrives in the warm embrace of commercial and critical success.

Scott Wilson argues persuasively that Cronenberg's career can be divided into broad thematic stages and instead offers a complex examination of the relationship between three inter-related terms: the director as auteur; the industry that support or denies commercial opportunity; and the audience who receive, interpret and support (or decry) the vision represented on screen. The Politics of Insects provides an opportunity to explore Cronenberg's films in relation to each other in terms of their thematic continuity, and in terms of their relationship to industrial concerns and audience responses.

About this title

About the Author

Scott Wilson is a Senior Lecturer in film history, film theory, and cultural studies in the Department of Performing and Screen Arts at Unitec, Institute of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1623563399
• ISBN 13: 9781623563394
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256