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RESEARCH PAPERS

No. 2 (2023):

Body and metamorphosis in David Cronenberg’s movies. Reflections from a feminist perspective

DOI
https://doi.org/10.58180/lci.2.2023.28
Submitted
October 20, 2022
Published
2023-08-31

Abstract

1979 saw the release of David Cronenberg's The Brood, a film narrating the bodily, mental and behavioral transformations of human beings in the context of a complex family history, with disruptions and emotional conflicts. Nola, the main female character, suffers from a psychiatric condition that is treated by Dr. Raglan, a physician who performs dubious experiments with adverse effects. Cronenberg's film aesthetics have been characterized as a visuality of New Flesh or “body horror”, which explores the metamorphosis undergone by some of the characters involved. Such mutations go through stages ranging from the human to the monstrous or the mechanical, triggering specific perceptions in the viewer that include both rejection and amazement, as well as attraction to the abject. The writings of theorists such as Luce Irigaray, Laura Mulvey and Donna Haraway provide us with different perspectives for interpreting the symbolic resonances of the female figure. In the light of these contributions, it is possible to observe the incidence of the male perspective in terms of sexual difference and objectualization, as posed by Luce Irigaray or Laura Mulvey, and to define a series of links with Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto. From the image-movement notion, we propose new readings that include the concepts of the above authors in order to introduce a critical perspective that retrieves the tensions arisen in Nola’s personification in The Brood.

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