Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Baxstrom, Richard
Titre(s) : Realizing the witch [Texte imprimé] : science, cinema, and the mastery of the invisible / Richard Baxstrom and Todd Meyers
Publication : New York : Fordham university press, ©2016
Description matérielle : x, 285 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Collection : Forms of living
Lien à la collection : Forms of living
Comprend : Introduction: What Is Häxan? ; Part I: The realization of the witch. The witch
in the human sciences and the mastery of nonsense ; Evidence, first movement: words
and things ; Evidence, second movement: tableaux and faces ; The viral character of
the witch ; Demonology ; Part II: A mobile force in the modern age. 1922 ; Sex, touch,
and materiality ; Possession and ecstasy ; Hysterias ; Postscript: it is very hard
to believe.
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-273 and index. - Includes filmography
"Benjamin Christensen's Häxan (The Witch, 1922) stands as a singular film within
the history of cinema. Deftly weaving contemporary scientific analysis and powerfully
staged historical scenes of satanic initiation, confession under torture, possession,
and persecution, Häxan creatively blends spectacle and argument to provoke a humanist
re-evaluation of witchcraft in European history as well as the contemporary treatment
of "hysterics" and the mentally ill. In Realizing the Witch, Baxstrom and Meyers show
how Häxan opens a window onto wider debates in the 1920s regarding the relationship
of film to scientific evidence, the evolving study of religion from historical and
anthropological perspectives, and the complex relations between popular culture, artistic
expression, and concepts in medicine and psychology. Häxan is a film that travels
along the winding path of art and science rather than between the narrow division
of "documentary" and "fiction". Baxstrom and Meyers reveal how Christensen's attempt
to tame the irrationality of "the witch" risked validating the very "nonsense" that
such an effort sought to master and dispel. Häxan is a notorious, genre-bending,
excessive cinematic account of the witch in early modern Europe--Realizing the Witch
not only illustrates the underrated importance of the film within the canons of classic
cinema, it lays bare the relation of the invisible to that which we cannot prove but
nevertheless "know" to be there"
Sujet(s) : Häxan (film)
Sorcellerie -- Europe -- Illustrations
Maladies mentales -- Europe -- 1900-1945
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780823268245. - ISBN 0823268241. - ISBN 9780823268252. - ISBN 082326825X
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb45034808q
Notice n° :
FRBNF45034808
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
