Description
Book SynopsisA history and theorization of the representation of public health concerns in commercial cinema and educational film
Trade Review“
Cinematic Prophylaxis offers a very sophisticated and original interpretation of a fascinating topic: the emergence of the logic of contagion in world health ‘education’ practices and in U. S. mainstream cinema. Kirsten Ostherr links the discourse of contagion and public health with the development of cinema and the rise of visuality, problems of modernity, and the logic of conspiracy, ultimately tying all of these to the problem of globalization. Her argument is utterly original; I haven’t seen anything else like it.”—Melani McAlister, author of
Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U. S. Interests in the Middle East since 1945“My copy of
Cinematic Prophylaxis will quickly be well worn with use in teaching and research consultation. It is a valuable and much-needed contribution to the intersecting histories of U.S. cinema and public health.”—Lisa Cartwright, author of
Screening the Body: Tracing Medicine’s Visual Culture“
Cinematic Prophylaxis is a powerful and very timely exploration of new and familiar forms of media. . . .[A]n exciting and useful addition to syllabi in a variety of advanced undergraduate and graduate courses including those in medical anthropology, visual anthropology, film studies, history of medicine, science and technology studies, and critical public health.” -- Summer Wood * Visual Anthropology Review *
Table of ContentsIllustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Cinema and Hygiene 1
1. Public Sphere as Petri Dish; or, “Special Case Studies of Motion Picture Theaters which are Known or Suspected to be Foci of Moral Infection” 18
2. “Noninfected but Infectible”: Contagion and the Boundaries of the Visible 47
3. From Inner to Outer Space: World Health and the Postwar Alien Invasion Film 79
4. Conspiracy and Cartography: Mapping Globalization though Epidemiology
121
5. Indexical Digital: Representing Contagion in the Postphotographic Era 155
Conclusion 192
Notes 197
Bibliography 225
Filmography 249
Index 259
