Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity
Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity investigates the intersection of film theory and nineteenth-century literature, arguing that the depth of amalgamation that occurred within literary representation during this era aims to replicate an illusion of life and its sensations, in ways directly related to broader transitions into our modern cinematic age.  A key part of this evolution in representation relies on the continual re-emergence of the artificial woman as longstanding expression of masculine artistic subjectivity, which, by the later nineteenth century, becomes a photographic and filmic drive. Moving through the beginning of film history, from Georges Méliès and other “silent” filmmakers in the 1890s, into more contemporary movies, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), the book analyzes how films are often structured around the prior century’s mythic and literary principles, which now serve as foundation for film as medium—a phantom form for life’s re-presentation. Artificial Generation provides a crucial reassessment of the longstanding, mutual exchange between cinematic and literary reproduction, offering an innovative perspective on the proto-cinematic imperative of simulation within nineteenth-century literary symbolism.
 
 
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Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity
Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity investigates the intersection of film theory and nineteenth-century literature, arguing that the depth of amalgamation that occurred within literary representation during this era aims to replicate an illusion of life and its sensations, in ways directly related to broader transitions into our modern cinematic age.  A key part of this evolution in representation relies on the continual re-emergence of the artificial woman as longstanding expression of masculine artistic subjectivity, which, by the later nineteenth century, becomes a photographic and filmic drive. Moving through the beginning of film history, from Georges Méliès and other “silent” filmmakers in the 1890s, into more contemporary movies, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), the book analyzes how films are often structured around the prior century’s mythic and literary principles, which now serve as foundation for film as medium—a phantom form for life’s re-presentation. Artificial Generation provides a crucial reassessment of the longstanding, mutual exchange between cinematic and literary reproduction, offering an innovative perspective on the proto-cinematic imperative of simulation within nineteenth-century literary symbolism.
 
 
35.95 In Stock
Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity

Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity

by Christina Parker-Flynn
Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity

Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity

by Christina Parker-Flynn

Paperback

$35.95 
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Overview

Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity investigates the intersection of film theory and nineteenth-century literature, arguing that the depth of amalgamation that occurred within literary representation during this era aims to replicate an illusion of life and its sensations, in ways directly related to broader transitions into our modern cinematic age.  A key part of this evolution in representation relies on the continual re-emergence of the artificial woman as longstanding expression of masculine artistic subjectivity, which, by the later nineteenth century, becomes a photographic and filmic drive. Moving through the beginning of film history, from Georges Méliès and other “silent” filmmakers in the 1890s, into more contemporary movies, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), the book analyzes how films are often structured around the prior century’s mythic and literary principles, which now serve as foundation for film as medium—a phantom form for life’s re-presentation. Artificial Generation provides a crucial reassessment of the longstanding, mutual exchange between cinematic and literary reproduction, offering an innovative perspective on the proto-cinematic imperative of simulation within nineteenth-century literary symbolism.
 
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781978825062
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Publication date: 11/19/2021
Pages: 260
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

CHRISTINA PARKER-FLYNN is an assistant professor of film and literature in the Department of English at Florida State University in Tallahassee. 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Introduction: Modernity's Reori-gene-ation 1

Part I Literary Simulations

1 The Literary Afterlife: Théophile Gautier's Aesthetic of Resurrection 19

2 Book of Genesis: The Villi-fication of Woman in L'Ève future 46

3 Salomania: The Unnatural Order of (Beautiful) Things in Oscar Wilde's Salome 81

Part II Cinematic Replications

4 Statuesque Cinema: Adapting Literature, Animating Film 113

5 See-Through Woman: Reproductive Delusions in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo 153

Epilogue: Still Mother-Adapting to Life in Blade Runner 2049 181

Acknowledgments 193

Notes 195

Bibliography 223

Index 237

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