The Abortive Superman
Übermensch as monster in the work of Panos Cosmatos
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20238397 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Eden (0000-0002-5602-8606, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 76-101 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Film International (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1651-6826 • E-ISSN: 2040-3801 |
| Publisher | Intellect (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1386/fint_00206_1 |
| OpenAlex | W4394831093 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
The paper examines Cosmatos's work to date: the two feature films 'Beyond the Black Rainbow'(2010), and 'Mandy' (2018), and the episode ‘The Viewing’ (2022) from the Netflix series 'Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities'. I argue that Cosmatos's films act as a vernacular critique of popular culture iterations of Nietzsche's Übermensch, and as such addresses the political and psychological anxieties of a mass North American audience. I further argue that Cosmatos is a profoundly psychoanalytical film maker, staging as horror, the subject who has weakened their ego in the name of transcendence, only to find the forces of super-ego and Id causing violent psychotic breakdown. The article takes an interdisciplinary approach to Cosmatos's contextualization (alongside more obvious peers) looking at the work of British artist Dexter Dalwood to help understand the political and philosophical aspects of Cosmatos's output
Art · Art history · Superman · Cinema and Media Studies · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Narrative Theory and Analysis
| Highly cited | No |
|---|