Cinematic Prophylaxis

Globalization and Contagion in the Discourse of World Health

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Medical, Reference, Public Health, Entertainment, Film, History & Criticism, Performing Arts
Cover of the book Cinematic Prophylaxis by Kirsten Ostherr, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kirsten Ostherr ISBN: 9780822387381
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: November 16, 2005
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Kirsten Ostherr
ISBN: 9780822387381
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: November 16, 2005
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

A timely contribution to the fields of film history, visual cultures, and globalization studies, Cinematic Prophylaxis provides essential historical information about how the representation of biological contagion has affected understandings of the origins and vectors of disease. Kirsten Ostherr tracks visual representations of the contamination of bodies across a range of media, including 1940s public health films; entertainment films such as 1950s alien invasion movies and the 1995 blockbuster Outbreak; television programs in the 1980s, during the early years of the aids epidemic; and the cyber-virus plagued Internet. In so doing, she charts the changes—and the alarming continuities—in popular understandings of the connection between pathologized bodies and the global spread of disease.

Ostherr presents the first in-depth analysis of the public health films produced between World War II and the 1960s that popularized the ideals of world health and taught viewers to imagine the presence of invisible contaminants all around them. She considers not only the content of specific films but also their techniques for making invisible contaminants visible. By identifying the central aesthetic strategies in films produced by the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and other institutions, she reveals how ideas about racial impurity and sexual degeneracy underlay messages ostensibly about world health. Situating these films in relation to those that preceded and followed them, Ostherr shows how, during the postwar era, ideas about contagion were explicitly connected to the global circulation of bodies. While postwar public health films embraced the ideals of world health, they invoked a distinct and deeply anxious mode of representing the spread of disease across national borders.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A timely contribution to the fields of film history, visual cultures, and globalization studies, Cinematic Prophylaxis provides essential historical information about how the representation of biological contagion has affected understandings of the origins and vectors of disease. Kirsten Ostherr tracks visual representations of the contamination of bodies across a range of media, including 1940s public health films; entertainment films such as 1950s alien invasion movies and the 1995 blockbuster Outbreak; television programs in the 1980s, during the early years of the aids epidemic; and the cyber-virus plagued Internet. In so doing, she charts the changes—and the alarming continuities—in popular understandings of the connection between pathologized bodies and the global spread of disease.

Ostherr presents the first in-depth analysis of the public health films produced between World War II and the 1960s that popularized the ideals of world health and taught viewers to imagine the presence of invisible contaminants all around them. She considers not only the content of specific films but also their techniques for making invisible contaminants visible. By identifying the central aesthetic strategies in films produced by the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and other institutions, she reveals how ideas about racial impurity and sexual degeneracy underlay messages ostensibly about world health. Situating these films in relation to those that preceded and followed them, Ostherr shows how, during the postwar era, ideas about contagion were explicitly connected to the global circulation of bodies. While postwar public health films embraced the ideals of world health, they invoked a distinct and deeply anxious mode of representing the spread of disease across national borders.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Pink Noises by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book The Cinema of Economic Miracles by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Arrested Histories by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Unruly Immigrants by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Portrait of a Young Painter by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Socialist Realism without Shores by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Crude Chronicles by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book The Community Economic Development Movement by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Text and the City by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Revolutionary Suicide and Other Desperate Measures by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Constitutional Failure by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Italian Signs, American Streets by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Sentimental Collaborations by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Stains on My Name, War in My Veins by Kirsten Ostherr
Cover of the book Tuning Out Blackness by Kirsten Ostherr
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy