<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The article investigates two seemingly conflicting critical approaches of haptic and transgressive cinema, which emerged along with the corporeal turn in film studies, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While haptics operates with undistinguishable figures and demands extreme closeness and an active caressing gaze, transgression is usually seen from a distance and subverts the social, political and ethical order. The paper attempts an examination of the Austrian avant-garde filmmaker Kurt Kren’s Actionist films and enlightens how these two opposing strategies can be present together. Giving a detailed analysis of the films, the article describes an expanded definition of Linda Williams’s body genres, in order to create a new category of horror: the horror of materiality.</p></abstract>

The article investigates two seemingly conflicting critical approaches of haptic and transgressive cinema, which emerged along with the corporeal turn in film studies, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While haptics operates with undistinguishable figures and demands extreme closeness and an active caressing gaze, transgression is usually seen from a distance and subverts the social, political and ethical order. The paper attempts an examination of the Austrian avant-garde filmmaker Kurt Kren’s Actionist films and enlightens how these two opposing strategies can be present together. Giving a detailed analysis of the films, the article describes an expanded definition of Linda Williams’s body genres, in order to create a new category of horror: the horror of materiality.

Haptic Transgression. The Horror of Materiality in Kurt Kren’s Films

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Haptic Transgression. The Horror of Materiality in Kurt Kren\u2019s Films"}

The article investigates two seemingly conflicting critical approaches of haptic and transgressive cinema, which emerged along with the corporeal turn in film...

Haptic Transgression. The Horror of Materiality in Kurt Kren’s Films

Published Online: Aug 17, 2019

Page range: 153 - 172

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2019-0008

Keywords
haptics, transgression, Kurt Kren, avant-garde, Viennese Actionism

© 2019 Bori Máté, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Haptic Transgression. The Horror of Materiality in Kurt Kren’s Films

Published Online: Aug 17, 2019

Page range: 153 - 172

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2019-0008

Keywordshaptics, transgression, Kurt Kren, avant-garde, Viennese Actionism

© 2019 Bori Máté, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
haptics, transgression, Kurt Kren, avant-garde, Viennese Actionism