Corporeality in Early Cinema ― Viscera, Skin, and Physical Form

Corporeality in Early Cinema inspires a heightened awareness of the ways in which early film culture, and screen praxes overall are inherently embodied. Contributors argue that on and off screen (and in affiliated media and technological constellations), the body consists of flesh and nerves and is not just an abstract spectator or statistical audience entity.

Audience responses from arousal to disgust, from identification to detachment, offer us a means to understand what spectators took and still take away from their cinematic experience. Through theoretical approaches and case studies, scholars offer a variety of models for stimulating historical research on corporeality and cinema by exploring the matrix of screened bodies, machine-made scaffolding, and their connections to the physical bodies in front of the screen.

Marina Dahlquist is Associate Professor of Cinema Studies at Stockholm University. She is editor of Exporting Perilous Pauline: Pearl White and the Serial Film Craze.

Jan Olsson is Professor of Cinema Studies and former Head of Department at Stockholm University. He is author of Hitchcock a la Carte.

Valentine Robert is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Lausanne. She is editor (with Laurent Le Forestier and Francois Albera) of Le Film sur l'art. Entre histoire de l'art et documentaire de creation.

Doron Galili is Research Fellow in the Department of Media Studies at Stockholm University.