© Columbia University Press
Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance: Powers of Affection
Paper, 248 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-7486-4941-9
$37.50
March, 2009
Cloth, 248 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-7486-3525-2
Edinburgh University Press
$105.00
The performing body privileges the notion of affective force over the notion of visual form, and Elena del Río places this at the center of theories of spectacle and performativity. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of the body, and on Deleuze-Spinoza's relevant concepts of affect and expression, del Río defines "affective-performative" cinema, the features of which unfold through detailed discussions of the movements, gestures, and speeds of the body in a variety of films by Douglas Sirk, Rainer W. Fassbinder, Sally Potter, Claire Denis, and David Lynch. She grounds her analysis in the body's powers of affection, proving the insufficiency of former theoretical approaches in accounting for the transformative and creative capacities of the moving body. Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance will interest scholars and students working with Deleuze, phenomenology, and feminism.