Cynthia Freeland

Horror is often dismissed as mass art of lowbrow entertainment that produced only shirt-term thrills. Horror films can be bloody, gory and disturbing, so some people argue that they have bad moral effects, inciting viewers to imitate cinematic violence or desensitizing them to atrocities. In The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Ho

Boken ingår i Rasters serie med introduktioner till estetiska ämnen. Cynthia Freelands bok hjälper den konstintresserade att förstå konstens - inte minst samtidskonstens - budskap och betydelse och dess plats i samhället, liksom de fascinerande tankebyggnader som uppförts med konsten som grundval med syfte att tolka och bedöma den. En bok som också fungerar utmärkt som språngbräda för egna reflektioner. Här behandlas så brännande aktuella teman som feminism och genusvetenskap, kulturella barriärer och postkoloniala attityder, konst som ritual, kitsch och »stor konst«, konstmarknaden och museernas roll. Vi får möta tänkare som Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin, Pierre Bourdieu, John Dewey, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Nelson Goodman, Immanuel Kant, Suzanne Langer, Marshall McLuhan, Friedrich Nietzsche, Linda Nochlin, Platon och många andra. Cynthia Freeland är professor och chef för filosofiska fakulteten vid Universitetet i Houston. Hon har bland annat givit ut böckerna »The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror« (Westview Press, Oktober 1999) och »Philosophy and Film« (Routledge, 1995). Under utgivning är »Fakes and Forgeries: Values in the Arts« (Oxford University Press). Den här boken publicerades först med titeln »But Is it Art?« och sedan som »Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction« (Oxford University Press, 2003) Hans-Olof Boström har skrivit bokens förord och svarat för fackgranskningen. Han är verksam som professor i konstvetenskap vid Karlstads universitet. Utgivna titlar i introduktionsserien: Design - en introduktion av John Heskett. Design för hållbar utveckling - en introduktion av Ann Thorpe. Design och postmodernitet - en introduktion av Penny Sparke. Designhistoria - en introduktion av Susann Vihma. Film och andra rörliga bilder - en introduktion, red. Anu Koivunen. Fotografi - en introduktion av Steve Edwards. Konstteori - en introduktion av Cynthia Freeland. Konstvetenskap - en introduktion av Dana Arnold. Mode - en introduktion. En tvärvetenskaplig betraktelse, red. Dirk Gindt & Louise Wallenberg. Svensk designhistoria av Lasse Brunnström.Kommande introduktionsböcker 2011: Swedish Design History av Lasse Brunnström.

In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. In this Very Short Introduction Cynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many fascinating examples. She discusses blood, beauty, culture, money, museums, sex, and politics, clarifying contemporary and historical accounts of the nature, function, and interpretation of the arts. Freeland also propels us into the future by surveying cutting-edge web sites, alongside the latest research on the brain's role in perceiving art. This clear, provocative book engages with the big debates surrounding our responses to art and is an invaluable introduction to anyone interested in thinking about art. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. In this book, Cynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many fascinating examples. She discusses blood, beauty, culture, money, museums, sex, and politics, clarifying contemporary and historical accounts of the nature, function, and interpretation of the arts. Freeland also propels us into the future by surveying cutting-edge web sites, along with the latest research on the brain's role in perceiving art. This clear, provocative book engages with the big debates surrounding our responses to art and is an invaluable introduction to anyone interested in thinking about art.

Horror is often dismissed as mass art or lowbrow entertainment that produces only short-term thrills. Horror films can be bloody, gory, and disturbing, so some people argue that they have bad moral effects, inciting viewers to imitate cinematic violence or desensitizing them to atrocities. In The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror , Cynthia A. Freeland seeks to counter both aesthetic disdain and moral condemnation by focusing on a select body of important and revealing films, demonstrating how the genre is capable of deep philosophical reflection about the existence and nature of evil,both human and cosmic. In exploring these films, the author argues against a purely psychoanalytic approach and opts for both feminist and philosophical understandings. She looks at what it is in these movies that serves to elicit specific reactions in viewers and why such responses as fear and disgust are ultimately pleasurable. The author is particularly interested in showing how gender figures into screen presentations of evil.The book is divided into three sections: Mad Scientists and Monstrous Mothers, which looks into the implications of male, rationalistic, scientific technology gone awry The Vampire's Seduction, which explores the attraction of evil and the human ability (or inability) to distinguish active from passive, subject from object, and virtue from vice and Sublime Spectacles of Disaster, which examines the human fascination with horror spectacle. This section concludes with a chapter on graphic horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre . Written for both students and film enthusiasts, the book examines a wide array of films including: The Silence of the Lambs, Repulsion, Frankenstein, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Alien, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, Frenzy, The Shining, Eraserhead, Hellraiser, and many others.