Books by Christophe Van Eecke
A philosophical exploration of engagement in art, elaborating on the work of Susanne K. Langer. F... more A philosophical exploration of engagement in art, elaborating on the work of Susanne K. Langer. Five interconnected essays address the role of art and the artist in society, conceptual and performance art, beauty and the gaze, aestheticism, and the cultural politics of the art-world. It contains extensive discussions of the work of, among others, Andy Warhol, Derek Jarman, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anthony Goicolea, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, and draws upon the work of Arthur Danto, Roland Barthes, and Elaine Scarry.
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters by Christophe Van Eecke
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Susanne K. Langer, 2024
What exactly is it that artists "do" when they "do" performance art? This question has long frust... more What exactly is it that artists "do" when they "do" performance art? This question has long frustrated critics. RoseLee Goldberg observes that "by its very nature, performance art defies precise or easy definition beyond the simple declaration that it is live art by artists." 1 Consequently, critics have tended to group performance art together with other body-related art practices under such container terms as Body Art, 2 Live Art, 3 or the more poetical "fleshworks." 4 But while it may be true that "the distinctions between performance art and other new media are now quite blurred, calling for new terminologies, for fresh ways to describe 'performance,'" 5 we need a robust concept of performance art if we are to move beyond generalities. It is at this juncture that Langer proves helpful. In Feeling and Form, Langer argues that every major art form creates what she calls its own primary illusion, which is that art form's specific presentational form. The primary illusion identifies how, for example, what is presented in a painting or a sculpture is significantly different in its formal structure from what is offered in a work of literature, a dance, or a film. The notion of "illusion" is key because it indicates that, for Langer, all artistic forms are virtual. This means that every work of art is first and foremost "given to our perception." 6 In the visual arts, for example, the primary illusion creates what Langer calls "virtual space" because in painting and drawing spatial relations are rendered in a two-dimensional plane: they create "a picture space that exists for vision alone. Being only visual, this space has no continuity with the space in which we live; it is limited by the frame … The created virtual space is entirely self-contained and independent." 7 Along similar lines, Langer argues that "virtual time" is the primary illusion of music because "musical duration is an image of … the passage of life" 8 while literary fiction establishes the primary illusion of "virtual life" 9 and architecture creates "an ethnic domain." 10 Following this model, I propose "virtual action" as the primary illusion of performance art. This concept is made up of two terms: performances are claimed to be acts, and these acts are said to be virtual. Both terms require some clarification. Langer introduces a concept of act in the first volume of Mind (1967), where she uses the term in a biological context to refer to "any unit of activity" 11 in an organism and to the "elements in the continuum of a life." 12 This means that her notion of act is CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Marvels & Tales, 2021
This article reads Margo Lanagan’s novel 'Tender Morsels' (2008) as an intervention in debates ab... more This article reads Margo Lanagan’s novel 'Tender Morsels' (2008) as an intervention in debates about safe spaces and teenage sexuality. I argue that the novel’s creation of a parallel universe in which characters are kept safe from sexual trauma functions as a critique of the notion of safe space, while the trope of animal transformation is used to address conflicting aspects of male teenage sexuality. Drawing on these themes, the novel formulates an alternative approach to the challenges of trauma and recovery that stresses strength and resilience, arguing that the hardships of reality must be faced head-on.
Mythlore, 2019
William Rayner’s young adult novel 'Stag Boy' (1972) is often discussed in surveys of children’s ... more William Rayner’s young adult novel 'Stag Boy' (1972) is often discussed in surveys of children’s literature as a classic young adult novel, but it has received little probing critical attention. This article argues that the novel uses its narrative of a boy’s mental association with a giant stag as an allegory for the transition from boyhood into manhood. In a detailed close reading of the novel, and following the model of the love chase of medieval romance, it is shown how the author borrows key elements from folklore (the shaming ritual of the stag hunt), myth (Herne the Hunter), and quest romances (the motif of the joust) to develop a highly symbolic tale of mental growth and triumph over limitations. This makes 'Stag Boy' a key text in the literary tradition that uses the theme of animal metamorphosis as a trope for addressing the conflicts of male adolescence.
Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies, 2019
Ken Russell's film Gothic (1986) dramatises one of the key foundational myths of nineteenth-centu... more Ken Russell's film Gothic (1986) dramatises one of the key foundational myths of nineteenth-century British literature: the night at the Villa Diodati when Mary Shelley allegedly had the initial idea for her novel Frankenstein (1818). While the film can be enjoyed as a costumed horror film, this article argues that it is in fact an intricate response to the heritage film genre and to heritage tourism within the cultural and political context of Britain in the 1980s. Russell's film subverts heritage film conventions and mobilises early film techniques and forms of entertainment from the late Victorian era to comment upon the recuperation of Victorian culture in the heritage industry of the 1980s. To make clear how the film achieves this, four key aspects are analysed: the parallels between the film's structure and a funhouse ride; the film's use of the tableau vivant; the film's engagement with nineteenth-century celebrity cults; and the film's representation of heritage tourism. Taken together, these elements introduce a complex reflexivity in the film that allows the attentive viewer to enjoy it on several levels at once, both as a heritage horror film and as a neo-Victorian critique of the cultural forces that seek to revive the Victorian in a contemporary context.
Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung, 2018
This article examines three novels by the popular Flemish youth author Gie Laenen, written betwee... more This article examines three novels by the popular Flemish youth author Gie Laenen, written between 1975 and 1982, in which the theories and practices associated with progressive education in the 1970s are key elements of the narrative. It argues that Laenen, who was convicted in 1973 and again in 2008 of serial sexual abuse of teenage boys, used progressive education as a narrative trope both to suggest to his young readers that close attachments between young boys and adult men were harmless and to provide an exculpatory defence for his own acts. Through narratological analysis and a contextualisation of the novels within the educational culture of the time, the article shows how Laenen – by drawing upon the ideas of progressive education, using these ideas to shape his narratives, and suggesting parallels between himself (as author) and several main characters – effectively appropriated the ideals of progressive education for ulterior purposes to justify his own abusive behaviour.
Marie-Luise Kohlke and Christian Gutleben (eds.), Neo-Victorian Humour, Leiden/Boston: Brill/Rodopi, 2017
This chapter argues that Ken Russell's film 'The Lair of the White Worm' (1988), adapted from the... more This chapter argues that Ken Russell's film 'The Lair of the White Worm' (1988), adapted from the Bram Stoker novel, is conceived as a camp subversion of the conventions of the British heritage film, which was a dominant genre of 1980s film production in the UK. In updating his adaptation of the novel to the 1980s, Russell opens up a number of interesting Neo-Victorian perspectives on Stoker's original. A close reading of the film's modes of adaptation, its choice of actors and acting styles, its characterization, costuming, and set design all reveal a complex and subversive attitude to both the Victorian past and contemporary revaluations of it.
International Research in Children's Literature, 2017
The popular Flemish youth author Gie Laenen has been exposed as a serial child abuser. In this ar... more The popular Flemish youth author Gie Laenen has been exposed as a serial child abuser. In this article, the real-life grooming tactics of child abusers are mapped onto the literary tropes that Laenen used in his books to show that his novels can be read as part of a process of seduction. The article also raises the question whether the presence of such seductive tropes should be considered a problem, and whether it may not also open up perspectives on why young readers actually enjoyed these books.
Staging the World: 'The Devils' as 'Theatrum Mundi'
Journal of British Cinema and Television, 2015
When Ken Russell's film 'The Devils' was released in 1971 it generated a tidal wave of adverse cr... more When Ken Russell's film 'The Devils' was released in 1971 it generated a tidal wave of adverse criticism. The film tells the story of a libertine priest, Grandier, who was burnt at the stake for witchcraft in the French city of Loudun in the early seventeenth century. Because of its extended scenes of sexual hysteria among cloistered nuns, the film soon acquired a reputation for scandal and outrage. This has obscured the very serious political issues that the film addresses. This article argues that 'The Devils' should be read primarily as a political allegory. It shows that the film is structured as a theatrum mundi, which is the allegorical trope of the world as a stage. Rather than as a conventional recreation of historical events (in the tradition of the costume film), Russell treats the trial against Grandier as a comment on the nature of power and politics in general. This is not only reflected in the overall allegorical structure of the theatrum mundi, but also in the use of the film's highly modernist (and therefore timeless) sets, in Russell's use of the mise-en-abyme (a self-reflexive embedded play) and in the introduction of a number of burlesque sequences, all of which are geared towards achieving the film's allegorical import.
Image and Narrative, 2012
It has become a common trope to speak of Ken Russell's films as somehow 'baroque'. But what does ... more It has become a common trope to speak of Ken Russell's films as somehow 'baroque'. But what does that really mean? This article seeks to clarify this question by looking at one of Russell's most overlooked films, Salome's Last Dance. This is a play-within-the-film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's decadent play, which calls to mind similar approaches to the theatre that are associated primarily with the baroque stage of the seventeenth century (play-within-the-play, mise-en-abîme). By looking at the way Russell uses these structural devices we will gain insight in a deeper baroque structure in his work. But in the course of the analysis we will also debunk some myths that have accrued to the figure of Salome and her dance of the seven veils. Although Russell's films are most commonly classified as baroque on account of their excessive visual style, this article shows that the real baroque is happening inside, in the way the film (and Russell's work in general) is structured. Résumé On appelle les films de Ken Russell 'baroques' presque par habitude. Mais qu'est-ce que cette
Academic Articles by Christophe Van Eecke
Salmagundi Magazine, 2022
Despite the increasing marginalisation of history in our schools and universities, some aspects o... more Despite the increasing marginalisation of history in our schools and universities, some aspects of archaeology seem to be in the cultural ascendant. For while our collective historical foreground increasingly shrinks to the tweet before yesterday, some brave amateur historians are digging deep into the digital past to uncover a hidden record of moral wrongdoing. I am referring, of course, to the practice of recovering old tweets or other long-forgotten statements to shame and cancel people. Although identity politics has already swamped us with more neologisms than we care to think about, I propose that we start calling such resurrection of past minor transgressions "deadfacting": the deliberate and deliberately unkind exhumation of obscure facts from a person's past that should, by any standard of kindness or generosity, be left dormant or simply ignored.
Quillette, 2021
Cancellation is a public execution, during which a person is pilloried and destroyed. But while w... more Cancellation is a public execution, during which a person is pilloried and destroyed. But while we have become used to the cycle of manufactured outrage that preludes every cancellation, the desperate public apologies, and the devastating consequences for the people whose lives are ruined, we are often at a loss to know what we could do to stop this type of serial assault. Part of the solution is to gain as clear an understanding of the phenomenon as possible by probing its structure. Philosophical and historical scholarship on public executions and torture can help to illuminate the moral logic that drives the cycle of abuse.
International Research in Children's Literature, 2017
Overview of the prevalence and academic discussion of intergenerational desire as a theme in chil... more Overview of the prevalence and academic discussion of intergenerational desire as a theme in children's and young adult literature. Introduction to special issue.
Journal of British Cinema and Television, 2015
Accepted Manuscript Version of the Introduction to a special Ken Russell issue of the 'Journal of... more Accepted Manuscript Version of the Introduction to a special Ken Russell issue of the 'Journal of British Cinema and Television'.
Wat de verbeelding niet vermag!, 2014
A close reading of the song 'The Performance of My Life' by Shirley Bassey, analyzing the intrica... more A close reading of the song 'The Performance of My Life' by Shirley Bassey, analyzing the intricate way in which performativity is self-reflexively performed in the song.
Photogénie, 2013
This article provides a detailed overview of Ken Russell's development as a documentary filmmaker... more This article provides a detailed overview of Ken Russell's development as a documentary filmmaker at the BBC in the 1960s. By placing his work in the broader institutional and cultural context of British television, and by highlighting the intersection between television documentary and drama, I argue for the centrality of Russell's work for a full understanding of the development of a televisual aesthetic within the BBC in the 1960s.
Edited Volumes by Christophe Van Eecke
Ken Russell
Journal of British Cinema and Television, 2015
Co-edited with John Hill and Karel Vanhaesebrouck. Special issue with contributions on the work o... more Co-edited with John Hill and Karel Vanhaesebrouck. Special issue with contributions on the work of filmmaker Ken Russell.
Professional Essays [English] by Christophe Van Eecke
Metropolis M, 2009
Sometimes good things just happen, as with the BFI's recent decision to release Don Levy's (1932-... more Sometimes good things just happen, as with the BFI's recent decision to release Don Levy's (1932-1987) impossible-to-see classic Herostratus (1967) on dvd, with some of Levy's most remarkable shorts thrown in as bonus features. Although far less well-known than its American counterpart, the British underground film has a rich and varied history. Herostratus, which was released in 1967 to very limited audiences, is one of its unsung masterpieces. In fact, the appearance of the film on dvd marks its first commercial release ever, which gives one a fair idea of the film's obscurity. Herostratus was filmed over an eightmonth period from August 1964 through May 1965. Subsequently, it took Levy two years to find funding for and complete the editing of the film. When it was finished, his work was barely seen, except at festival screenings and in exhibitions. However, the film was well received by a generation of young filmmakers who were profoundly influenced by it and took up many of its innovations, substantiating Amnon Buchbinder's claim (in the booklet accompanying the dvd) that Herostratus must 'rank among the most influential of unknown films'.
Culture Weekly (Radboud University Faculty of the Arts Tumblr Blog), 2017
This essay discusses Neil Hilborn's viral video of his poem 'OCD' and the poet's volume 'Our Numb... more This essay discusses Neil Hilborn's viral video of his poem 'OCD' and the poet's volume 'Our Numbered Days' from a perspective informed by the work of Susanne K. Langer. Issues of genre, form (written vs. performance poetry), and performance are discussed. I do a close reading of Hilborn's performance of the poem in the video and question the wisdom of publishing performance poetry as a volume of poems.
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Books by Christophe Van Eecke
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters by Christophe Van Eecke
Academic Articles by Christophe Van Eecke
Edited Volumes by Christophe Van Eecke
Professional Essays [English] by Christophe Van Eecke
The essay was published by Lokaal 01 (Breda, NL) as part of its 'theoretical space' ('Theoretische Ruimte': ThRu) to accompany an exhibition project.