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Ecce Homo

The Male-Body-in-Pain as Redemptive Figure

Kent L Brintnall author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:13th Jan '12

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Ecce Homo cover

Images of suffering male bodies permeate Western culture, from Francis Bacon's paintings and Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs to the battered heroes of action movies. Drawing on perspectives from a range of disciplines - including religious studies, gender and queer studies, psychoanalysis, art history, and film theory - "Ecce Homo" explores the complex, ambiguous meanings of the enduring figure of the male-body-in-pain. Acknowledging that representations of men confronting violence and pain can reinforce ideas of manly tenacity, Kent L. Brintnall also argues that they reveal the vulnerability of men's bodies and open them up to eroticization. Locating the roots of our cultural fascination with male pain in the crucifixion, he analyzes the way narratives of Christ's death and resurrection both support and subvert cultural fantasies of masculine power and privilege. Through stimulating readings of works by Georges Bataille, Kaja Silverman, and more, Brintnall delineates the redemptive power of representations of male suffering and violence.

"Imagine a book that treats religion and eroticism not as sworn enemies or cycling debaters but as twin arts. A book for which images of sexed bodies are not records or replacements so much as devices of an ecstatic redemption. You have found that book. In it, Kent Brintnall retells the Christian saga of male suffering through Hollywood action films, Mapplethorpe's most scandalous photographs, and the gurgling paintings of Francis Bacon." (Mark D. Jordan, Harvard University)"

ISBN: 9780226074696

Dimensions: 24mm x 16mm x 2mm

Weight: 454g

256 pages