Abstract:

Re-examining David Lynch’s Eraserhead in the context of recent studies and developments in body theory, the author suggests that the malformed infant is a complex textual body which carries many more potential meanings than our contemporary culture is willing to prescribe. By employing an opposition of the "open" versus "closed" body, Lynch critiques dominant readings and depictions of the infantile body as a site of innocence, transforming it, instead, into a locus of horror and astonishment in an endless chain of signifiers.

Notes:

The article was originally published in The Canadian Journal of Film Studies 9.2 (2000): 55=69

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