Unwatchable / edited by Nicholas Baer, Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak, and Gunnar Iversen.
Format | Book and Print |
Publication Info | New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2019] |
Description | viii, 402 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm |
Subject(s) |
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Other author/creator | Baer, Nicholas, 1985- editor. |
Other author/creator | Hennefeld, Maggie, 1984- editor. |
Other author/creator | Horak, Laura, editor. |
Other author/creator | Iversen, Gunnar, 1959- editor. |
Abstract | "We all have images that we find unwatchable, whether for ethical, political, or sensory-affective reasons. From news coverage of terror attacks to viral videos of police brutality, and from graphic horror films to incendiary artworks that provoke mass boycotts, many of the images in our media culture strike as beyond the pale of consumption. Yet what does it mean to proclaim a media object "unwatchable": disturbing, revolting, poor, tedious, or literally inaccessible? Appealing to a broad academic and general readership, Unwatchable offers multidisciplinary approaches to the vast array of troubling images that circulate in our global visual culture, from cinema, television, and video games through museums and classrooms to laptops, smart phones, and social media platforms. This anthology assembles 60 original essays by scholars, theorists, critics, archivists, curators, artists, and filmmakers who offer their own responses to the broadly suggestive question: What do you find unwatchable? The diverse answers include iconoclastic artworks that have been hidden from view, dystopian images from the political sphere, horror movies, TV advertisements, classic films, and recent award-winners"-- Provided by publisher. |
General note | Machine generated contents note: Contents Introduction: Envisioning the Unwatchable Part I: Violence and Testimony Theorizing the Unwatchable 1. W. J. T. Mitchell, Unwatchable 2. Boris Groys, The Gaze from Within 3. Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, The Unwatchable and the Unwatchable 4. Alenka Zupančič, Melting Into Visibility 5. Meghan Sutherland, Pro Forma Spectacles of Destruction 6. Jonathan Crary, Terminal Radiance 7. Poulomi Saha, Unwatched/Unmanned: Drone Strikes and the Aesthetics of the Unseen 8. Alex Bush, Breakaway 9. Meir Wigoder, The Watchability of the Unwatchable: Television Disaster Coverage Bearing Witness 10. Peter Geimer, The Incommensurable 11. Leshu Torchin, Not Seeing is Believing: The Unwatchable in Advocacy 12. Frances Guerin, Even If She Had Been a Criminal: A Past Unwatched 13. Federico Windhausen, Deframing Evidence: A Transmission from Los ingravidos 14. Emily Wills, Alan Kurdi's Body on the Shore Visual Regimes of Racial Violence 15. Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, Held Helpless in the Breach: On American History X 16. Jared Sexton, The Flash of History: On the Unwatchable in Get Out 17. Alexandra Juhasz, Nothing is Unwatchable for All 18. Michael Boyce Gillespie, Empathy. Complicity. Spectacularization and Resistance 19. Alok Vaid-Menon, Entertainment Value 20. Alec Butler, Holocausts, Headdresses, Hallowe'en 21. Danielle Peers, Unwitnessable: Outrageous Ableist Impersonations and Unwitnessed Everyday Violence Part II: Histories and Genres The Tradition of Provocateurs 22. Asbjrn Grnstad, The Two Unwatchables 23. Akira Lippit, Real Horrorshow 24. Mauro Resmini, Asymmetries of Desire: Sal or the 120 Days of Sodom 25. Mattias Frey, Unstomachable: Irreversible and the Extreme Cinema Tradition Enduring the Avant-Garde 26. Christophe Wall-Romana, Unwatchability by Choice: Isou's Venom and Eternity 27. KennethBerger, The Refusal of Spectacle: Debord's Howls for Sade 28. J. Hoberman, Warhol's Empire: Unwatched and Unwatchable 29. Nol Carroll, Warhol's Empire 30. Erika Balsom, Watching Paint Dry Visceral Responses to Horror 31. Vivian Sobchack, "Peek-a-boo": Thoughts on (Maybe Not) Seeing Two Horror Films 32. B. Ruby Rich, Why I Cannot Watch Horror Movies 33. Genevieve Yue, Apotropes Pornography and the Question of Pleasure 34. Susie Bright, I Am Curious (Butterball) 35. Bill Nichols, At the Threshold to the Void Archives and the Disintegrating Image 36. Elif Rongen-Kaynaki, Restoring Blood Money 37. Jan Olsson, Negotiating Garbo 38. Philipp Stiasny and Bennet Togler, Twilight of the Dead Part III: Spectators and Objects Passionate Aversions 39. Jonathan Rosenbaum, "Sad!": Why I Won't Watch Antichrist 40. Julian Hanich, Oh, Inventiveness! Oh, Imaginativeness! Precious Cinema and Its Discontents: A Rant 41. Nathan Lee, Transforming Nihilism 42. Jeffrey Sconce, The Biopic is an Affront to the Cinema Tedious Whiteness 43. Jack Halberstam, White Men Behaving Sadly 44. Mel Y. Chen, Two Tables and a Ladder: WCGW? 45. Brandy Monk-Payton, "You is Kind, You is Smart, You is Important" or, Why I Can't Watch The Help Reality Trumpism 46. Lynne Joyrich, TV Trumps 47. Abigail De Kosnik, The Once and Future Hillary: Why I Won't Watch Any Fictionalizations of the 2016 Election Pedagogy and Campus Politics 48. Ral Perez, Why We Can't Take a Joke 49. Jennifer Malkowski, The Bridge and Unteachable Films 50. Katariina Kyrola, Squirming in the Classroom: Fat Girl and the Ethical Value of Extreme Discomfort The Triggered Spectator 51. E. Ann Kaplan, What is an "Unwatchable" Film? (With Reference to Amour and Still Alice) 52. Barbara Hammer, Unwatchable Advertising 53. Samuel England, Sects, Fries, and Videotape 54. Rebecca Schneider, Off Watch Acknowledgments Filmography Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index. |
Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
LCCN | 2018009950 |
ISBN | 9780813599588 paperback |
ISBN | 081359958X paperback |
ISBN | 9780813599595 hardcover |
ISBN | 0813599598 hardcover |
Available Items
Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions | |
Joyner | General Stacks | B105 .I47 U59 2019 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |