Film Bodies: Queer Feminist Encounters with Gender and Sexuality in Cinema

by Katharina Lindner

Overview

The representation of gender and sexuality is well-explored territory in film studies. In Film Bodies, Katharina Lindner takes existing debates into a new direction and integrates queer and feminist theory with film phenomenology. Drawing on a broad range of sources, Lindner explores the female body's presence in a range of genres including the dance film, the sports film and queer cinema.

Moving across mainstream and independent cinema, Lindner provides detailed 'textural' analyses of Black Swan, The Tango Lesson, 2 Seconds, Offside, Tomboy and Girlhood and discusses the queer feminist encounters these films can give rise to. This provocative book is of vital interest to students and researchers of queer cinema, queer/feminist theory, embodiment and affect and offers a unique new way of understanding the relationship between queerness, feminism, the body and cinema.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838608545
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	10/16/2017
Series:	Library of Gender and Popular Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Katharina Lindner is Lecturer in Film and Media and a member of the Centre for Gender and Feminist Studies at the University of Stirling, UK. She was also a professional footballer in a former life.
Katharina Lindner was Lecturer in Film and Media and a member of the Centre for Gender and Feminist Studies at the University of Stirling, UK. Before becoming an academic, she was a celebrated professional footballer, scoring 128 goals for Glasgow City before she retired from the game in 2011.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Queer(ing) Phenomenology

Chapter 2 – Female Bodies in 'Action': Gender/Genre Trouble

Chapter 3 – 'Throwing Like a Girl'? Physicality and Athletic Performance on Screen

Chapter 4 – Dancing on Screen: Mirror-ing Movement

Chapter 5 – Queer Cinema: Queer Orientations?

Chapter 6 – Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Lindner provides a welcome guide through new terrain. Deftly navigating the challenge of bringing feminist and queer thought together, Film Bodies raises important questions about how the social, spatial and corporeal coordinates of cinematic being are imbricated.” —Film-Philosophy

“I cannot think of a single other scholar in the world who combines such an integrated approach to philosophical phenomenology, queer theory and feminist theory while also examining contemporary films in such insightful detail.” —Jenny Chamarette, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, Queen Mary University of London

“In this challenging and provocative book, Katharina Lindner tackles the problems that film phenomenology has skirted around for years. What is a queer feminist phenomenology? What about female bodies that are in movement, that disrupt, that display themselves and unsettle? Who can speak about them and for them? Lindner looks at filmic female bodies that dance and play sport, and that are performatively queer, and examines the thrilling spaces and affective timeframes in which they move. The result is a new realm of queer feminist embodiment that enables different kinds of non-normative lived bodies to become visible and active, from tango dancers to tomboys, and boxers to ballerinas. A vital and significant development of film phenomenology.” —Lucy Bolton, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, Queen Mary University of London

“Film Bodies vibrantly explores the intersections between film phenomenology and queer and feminist theories. Through a series of agile textual analyses, Lindner draws out the potential of the gendered body to trouble both cinema's sensory experience and film theory s critical categories. Film Bodies is an essential contribution to queer film scholarship.” —Rosalind Galt, Head of Department of Film Studies, King's College London

From the Publisher

Lindner’s book is a valuable contribution… With sensitive attention to detail and to theoretical rigour, her book is distinctive and richly suggestive, important reading for those interested not only in film studies but in contemporary analyses of gender and feminist representation”

Times Higher Education