Barry Curtis

In this wide-ranging and compelling study, Barry Curtis demonstrates how the claustrophobic interiors of haunted spaces in films connect to the ‘dark places’ of the human psyche.

The Haunted House in Film

Dark Places

Tim Putnam

Lisa Tickner

George Robertson

Jon Bird

Melinda Mash

Brings together leading theorists of culture and science to discuss the concept of 'nature'. Recent developments in biotechnologies, electronic media and ecological politics are discussed .We are living in an age when 'nature' seems to be on the brink of extinction yet, at the same time, 'nature' is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and unstable as a category for representation and debate.Futurenatural brings together leading theorists of culture and science to discuss the concept of 'nature' - its past, present and future. Contributors discuss the impact on our daily life of recent developments on biotechnologies, electronic media and ecological politics. Increasingly, scientific theories and models have been taken up as cultural metaphors that have material effects in transforming 'ways of seeing' and 'structures of feeling'.The book addresses the issue of whether political and cultural debates about the body and environment can take place without reference to 'nature' or the 'natural'. This collection considers how we might 'think' a future developing from emergent scientific theories and discourses. What cultural forms may be produced when new knowledges challenge and undermine traditional ways of conceiving the 'natural'.

Nature, Science, Culture

FutureNatural

Futurenatural brings together leading theorists of culture and science to discuss the concept of 'nature'. Recent developments in biotechnologies, electronic media and ecological politics are discussed.We are living in an age when 'nature' seems to be on the brink of extinction yet, at the same time, 'nature' is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and unstable as a category for representation and debate.F uturenatural brings together leading theorists of culture and science to discuss the concept of 'nature' - its past, present and future. Contributors discuss the impact on our daily life of recent developments in biotechnologies, electronic media and ecological politics. Increasingly, scientific theories and models have been taken up as cultural metaphores that have material effects in transforming 'ways of seeing' and 'structures of feeling'.The book addresses the issue of whether political and cultural debates about the body and the environment can take place without reference to 'nature' or the 'natural'. This collection considers how we might 'think' a future developing from emergent scientific theories and discourses. What cultural forms may be produced when new knowledges challenge and undermine traditional ways of conceiving the 'natural' ?

An investigation into the future of travelling in a world where boundaries are shifting and dissolving. Amongst the issues covered are politics and identity, history and narration and the representation of other cultures.

Narratives of Home and Displacement

Travellers' Tales

Horror films revel in taking viewers into shadowy places where the evil resides, whether it is a house, a graveyard or a dark forest. These mysterious spaces foment the terror at the heart of horror movies, empowering the ghastly creatures that emerge to kill and torment. With Dark Places, Barry Curtis leads us deep inside these haunted spaces to explore them – and the monstrous antagonists who dwell there. In this wide-ranging and compelling study, Curtis demonstrates how the claustrophobic interiors of haunted spaces in films connect to the ‘dark places’ of the human psyche. He examines diverse topics such as the special effects – ranging from crude to state-of-the-art – used in movies to evoke supernatural creatures; the structures, projections and architecture of horror movie sets; and ghosts as symbols of loss, amnesia, injustice and vengeance. Dark Places also examines the reconfiguration of the haunted house in film as a motel, an apartment, a road or a spaceship, and how these re-imagined spaces thematically connect to Gothic fictions. Curtis draws his examples from numerous iconic films – including Nosferatu, Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Shining – as well as lesser-known international works, which allow him to consider different cultural ideas of ‘haunting’. Japanese horror films and their Hollywood remakes – such as Ringu and The Ring, or Juon and The Grudge – come under particular scrutiny, as he explores Japanese cinema’s preoccupation with malevolent forces from the past. Whether you love the splatter of blood or prefer to hide under the couch, Dark Places cuts to the heart of why we are drawn to carnage.

John Bird

There are now new experiences of space and time; new tensions between globalism and regionalism, socialism and consumerism, reality and spectacle; new instabilities of value, meaning and identity - a dialectic between past and future. How are we to understand these? Mapping the Futures is the first of a series which brings together cultural theorists from different disciplines to assess the implications of economic, political and social change for intellectual inquiry and cultural practice.

Barry Curtis

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