Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/28/2019
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Location
3108 JKB
Category(ies)
Professor Marc Olivier, French & Italian, will present for the Humanities Center’s weekly colloquium on Thursday, March 28th. The presentation will be held at 3:00 PM in room 4010 JFSB. He will be discussing his current research in applying OOO to cinema and media studies. We hope you’ll join us.
Title: “Cinematic Fear and the Secret Life of Everyday Objects”
What happens when horror movies are read entirely through common household objects? Marc Olivier’s book Household Horror entertains the possibility that Regan MacNeil’s problem in The Exorcist is indeed her bed, that Rosemary’s Baby is as much about prenatal vitamins and herbal supplements as it is about witchcraft, and that the remote control is as central to Poltergeist as the television. Inspired by the nonhuman turn in philosophy, Household Horror investigates the unfathomable being of objects as seemingly benign as sleeper sofas, radiators, refrigerators, and dining tables. We have all heard of the shower scene in Psycho, but what does Hitchcock’s film tell us about shower curtains? What can we learn from Freddie Krueger’s greatest accomplice, the mattress? This colloquium presentation considers the dark side of household objects and suggests ways in which object-oriented philosophical trends can reinvigorate film criticism.
Refreshments will be served
