The King without Body and His Shadow. Towards a Political Theology of Film Cover Image

Kralj bez tijela i njegova sjena. Prema političkoj teologiji filma
The King without Body and His Shadow. Towards a Political Theology of Film

Author(s): Mario Vrbančić
Subject(s): Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Psychoanalysis, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Ontology
Published by: Hrvatsko Filozofsko Društvo
Keywords: political theology of film; king’s two bodies; biopower; cinematic mode of production; psychoanalysis;

Summary/Abstract: Inspired by the work of Eric Santner (1996, 2011) on political theology and the king’s two bodies, in this paper, I question the political theology of film. I analyze how the carnal dimension of sovereignty (or king’s second body, the body of his power), migrates into a new body, the body of the people, and in various traces appears in the filmic mode of production that marked the twentieth century. I analyse or instead bring into imaginary connection two characters (one real, the other fictional) who in a way embody this migration: (1) Judge Daniel Paul Schreber (whose autobiographical record of mental illness, from the moment it was published (in 1903), occupied the attention not only of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts but also of various theorists) and (2) Dr. Caligari, a hypnotist in the film The Office of Dr. Caligari (dir. Robert Wiene, 1920), one of the most famous characters of German expressionist film.

  • Issue Year: 40/2020
  • Issue No: 04/160
  • Page Range: 713-728
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Croatian
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