Overview

How do we identify the ""queer auteur"" and their queer imaginings? Is it possible to account for such a figure when the very terms ""queer"" and ""auteur"" invoke aesthetic surprises and disorientations, disconcerting ironies and paradoxes, and biographical deceits and ambiguities? In eighteen eloquent chapters, David A. Gerstner traces a history of ideas that spotlight an ever-shifting terrain associated with auteur theory and, in particular, queer-auteur theory. Engaging with the likes of Oscar Wilde, Walter Benjamin, James Baldwin, Jean Louis Baudry, Linda Nochlin, Jane Gallop, Cáel Keegan, Luce Irigaray, and other prominent critical thinkers, Gerstner contemplates how the queer auteur in film theory might open us to the work of desire. Queer Imaginings argues for a queer-auteur in which critical theory is reenabled to reconceptualize the auteur in relation to race, gender, sexuality, and desire. Gerstner succinctly defines the contours of a history and the ongoing discussions that situate queer and auteur theories in film studies. Ultimately, Queer Imaginings is a journey in shared pleasures in which writing for and about cinema makes way for unanticipated cinematic friendships.

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9780814350201

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Reviews

"Gerstner leaves his book with a proclamation on the powers of writing and friendship, not from a theoretical standpoint (the author seems aware that this is well covered by this point), but from a very personal place. It's one that pushes readers to explore and revel in the language and peoples who we surround ourselves with. In ending his vast and varied anthology in such a way, Gerstner launches his work not to an end point but to a new beginning, exemplifying a very curious and creative drive that all great ecriture auteurs must possess. --George Cunningham ""New Review of Film & Television Studies"" The range, both in chronology and subject, of this collection should provide much food for thought to dedicated scholars of auteur cinema and its intersections with queer filmmaking and criticism. --Kathleen McCallister ""Library Journal"" There's a stimulating exploration of queerness on the silver screen on offer here. -- ""Publisher's Weekly"""

Author Information

David A. Gerstner is professor of cinema studies at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island and Graduate Center. He has previously published over thirty articles in the subject of queer film studies and eight books including Christophe Honoré A Critical Introduction (Wayne State University Press, 2015).

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