Illict Images: Contemporary Art Cinema and the Limits of Transgression.

This project explores the forms and functions of transgression in contemporary art cinema, and attempts to come to terms both with the subversive potential inherent in this type of fiction and with the possibilities of emotional response that transgressiv e films elicit from the audience. By examining how films like, among others, The Idiots, Julien Donkey-Boy, Romance, The Piano Teacher, and Irréversible narrate what I choose to call illicit images of violence and sexuality, one can obtain new insights in to the nature, state, and meaning of the transgressive in an era in which the very notions of "shock" and "affect" seem to be severely at stake. The book aims significantly to further our knowledge of the processes of textualization of excessive imagery, and provides a much needed alternative to the numerous sociological and psychological models which typically comprehend violence and sexuality in the cinema as an empirical rather than a theoretical and philosophical problem. Encompass