Darwin's Screens

Evolutionary Aesthetics, Time and Sexual Display in the Cinema

Barbara Creed
Paperback
Added to basketCheckout →
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Other formats available
Darwin's Screens

Published

23 October 2009

ISBN

9780522857092

Pages

256

Imprint

MUP Academic

Darwin's Screens

Evolutionary Aesthetics, Time and Sexual Display in the Cinema

Barbara Creed
Darwin's Screens addresses a major gap in film scholarship—the key influence of Charles Darwin's theories on the history of the cinema. Much has been written on the effect of other great thinkers such as Freud and Marx but very little on the important role played by Darwinian ideas on the evolution of the newest art form of the twentieth century. Creed argues that Darwinian ideas influenced the evolution of early film genres such as horror, the detective film, science fiction, film noir and the musical. Her study draws on Darwin's theories of sexual selection, deep time and transformation, and on emotions, death, and the meaning of human and animal in order to rethink some of the canonical arguments of film and cinema studies.
Darwin's Screens addresses a major gap in film scholarship—the key influence of Charles Darwin's theories on the history of the cinema. Much has been written on the effect of other great thinkers such as Freud and Marx but very little on the important role played by Darwinian ideas on the evolution of the newest art form of the twentieth century. Creed argues that Darwinian ideas influenced the evolution of early film genres such as horror, the detective film, science fiction, film noir and the musical. Her study draws on Darwin's theories of sexual selection, deep time and transformation, and on emotions, death, and the meaning of human and animal in order to rethink some of the canonical arguments of film and cinema studies.

Barbara Creed

Barbara Creed

Barbara Creed is Professor of Cinema Studies and Head of the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. She is author of the acclaimed The Monstrous-feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Media Matrix: Sexing the New Reality, Phallic Panic: Film, Horror & the Primal Uncanny and Darwin's Screens: Evolutionary Aesthetics, Time and Sexual Display in the Cinema. She is also a well-known film critic and media commentator, and her writings on…

More

Paperback
Added to basketCheckout →
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Other formats available