The Captive Imagination
Taking an outset in American artist Matthew Barney’s film Cremaster 2 (1999), which is a part of the expansive work The Cremaster Cycle, this essay asks how notions of captivity reflect upon our concepts of inhumanity and animality. Captivity and confinement are in themselves favored themes of the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Humanimalia
2015-03-01
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| Series: | Humanimalia |
| Online Access: | https://humanimalia.org/article/view/9913 |
| _version_ | 1797657420522061824 |
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| author | Devika Sharma |
| author_facet | Devika Sharma |
| author_sort | Devika Sharma |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Taking an outset in American artist Matthew Barney’s film Cremaster 2 (1999), which is a part of the expansive work The Cremaster Cycle, this essay asks how notions of captivity reflect upon our concepts of inhumanity and animality. Captivity and confinement are in themselves favored themes of the popular imagination, but Barney’s speculative film suggests that notions of captivity also form part of the framework through which we imagine aspects of inhumanity and animality. Discussing the film in the light of contemporary theoretical reflections on what is commonly termed “the question of the inhuman” and “the question of the animal,” respectively, I understand the film to be a visual engagement with captivity and its significance for the discourses, images, and institutions that govern the boundaries of the human.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T17:44:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d69daa5758b54d578208b65628b104a2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2151-8645 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T17:44:14Z |
| publishDate | 2015-03-01 |
| publisher | Humanimalia |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanimalia |
| spelling | doaj.art-d69daa5758b54d578208b65628b104a22023-10-18T08:40:09ZengHumanimaliaHumanimalia2151-86452015-03-016210.52537/humanimalia.9913The Captive ImaginationDevika Sharma Taking an outset in American artist Matthew Barney’s film Cremaster 2 (1999), which is a part of the expansive work The Cremaster Cycle, this essay asks how notions of captivity reflect upon our concepts of inhumanity and animality. Captivity and confinement are in themselves favored themes of the popular imagination, but Barney’s speculative film suggests that notions of captivity also form part of the framework through which we imagine aspects of inhumanity and animality. Discussing the film in the light of contemporary theoretical reflections on what is commonly termed “the question of the inhuman” and “the question of the animal,” respectively, I understand the film to be a visual engagement with captivity and its significance for the discourses, images, and institutions that govern the boundaries of the human. https://humanimalia.org/article/view/9913 |
| spellingShingle | Devika Sharma The Captive Imagination Humanimalia |
| title | The Captive Imagination |
| title_full | The Captive Imagination |
| title_fullStr | The Captive Imagination |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Captive Imagination |
| title_short | The Captive Imagination |
| title_sort | captive imagination |
| url | https://humanimalia.org/article/view/9913 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT devikasharma thecaptiveimagination AT devikasharma captiveimagination |