{"title":"Peter Hujar: Shamelessness Without Shame","authors":"Harrison Adams","doi":"10.13110/criticism.63.4.0319","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:We can be ashamed and we can feel shame for someone who lacks shame. The essay argues that Peter Hujar's photography explores what it means to feel a truly shameless shamelessness. Each of Hujar's three major bodies of work—his portraits, nudes, and animal pictures—seeks in different ways to overcome what might be otherwise embarrassing about their respective genres: a portrait that is too candid, a nude that verges on naked, and, more subtly, animals that resist anthropomorphism, either as pets or as human doppelgängers. I contend that Hujar's unflinching and candid portrayals make the viewer acutely aware of his or her impulse to be or not to be embarrassed for themselves and/or for the artist's sitters. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's and Silvan Tomkins's idea that shame is something through which identity is constituted provides the essay's theoretical foundation.","PeriodicalId":42834,"journal":{"name":"FILM CRITICISM","volume":"54 1","pages":"319 - 353"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2021-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"FILM CRITICISM","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.13110/criticism.63.4.0319","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:We can be ashamed and we can feel shame for someone who lacks shame. The essay argues that Peter Hujar's photography explores what it means to feel a truly shameless shamelessness. Each of Hujar's three major bodies of work—his portraits, nudes, and animal pictures—seeks in different ways to overcome what might be otherwise embarrassing about their respective genres: a portrait that is too candid, a nude that verges on naked, and, more subtly, animals that resist anthropomorphism, either as pets or as human doppelgängers. I contend that Hujar's unflinching and candid portrayals make the viewer acutely aware of his or her impulse to be or not to be embarrassed for themselves and/or for the artist's sitters. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's and Silvan Tomkins's idea that shame is something through which identity is constituted provides the essay's theoretical foundation.
期刊介绍：
Film Criticism is a peer-reviewed, online publication whose aim is to bring together scholarship in the field of cinema and media studies in order to present the finest work in this area, foregrounding textual criticism as a primary value. Our readership is academic, although we strive to publish material that is both accessible to undergraduates and engaging to established scholars. With over 40 years of continuous publication, Film Criticism is the third oldest academic film journal in the United States. We have published work by such international scholars as Dudley Andrew, David Bordwell, David Cook, Andrew Horton, Ann Kaplan, Marcia Landy, Peter Lehman, Janet Staiger, and Robin Wood. Equally important, FC continues to present work from emerging generations of film and media scholars representing multiple critical, cultural and theoretical perspectives. Film Criticism is an open access academic journal that allows readers to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose except where otherwise noted.
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