Forgetting Lot's Wife - On Destructive Spectatorship (Paperback)

Can looking at disaster and mass death destroy us? Forgetting Lotas Wife provides a theory and a fragmentary history of destructive spectatorship in the twentieth century. Its subject is the notion that the sight of historical catastrophe can destroy the spectator. The fragments of this history all lead back to the story of Lotas wife: looking back at the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, she turns into a pillar of salt. This biblical story of punishment and transformation, a nexus of sexuality, sight, and cities, becomes the template for the modern fear that looking back at disaster might petrify the spectator. Although rarely articulated directly, this idea remains powerful in our culture. This book traces some of its aesthetic, theoretical, and ethical consequences. Harries traces the figure of Lotas wife across media. In extended engagements with examples from twentieth-century theater, film, and painting, he focuses on the theatrical theory of Antonin Artaud, a series of American films, and paintings by Anselm Kiefer. These examples all return to the story of Lotas wife as a way to think about modern predicaments of the spectator. On the one hand, the sometimes veiled figure of Lotas wife allows these artists to picture the desire to destroy the spectator; on the other, she stands as a sign of the potential danger to the spectator. These works, that is, enact critiques of the very desire that inspires them.The book closes with an extended meditation on September 11, criticizing the notion that we should have been destroyed by witnessing the events of that day.

General

Imprint:	Fordham University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	June 2007
First published:	June 2007
Authors:	Martin Harries
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 10mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade / Trade
Pages:	192
ISBN-13:	978-0-8232-2734-1
Categories:	Books > Arts & Architecture > The arts: general issues > General Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > From 1900 > General Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Theatre, drama > General Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Films, cinema > Film theory & criticism
LSN:	0-8232-2734-0
Barcode:	9780823227341

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