What do images of the body, which recent poets and filmmakers have given us, tell us about ourselves, about the way we think and about the culture in which we live? In his new book A Body of Vision, R. Bruce Elder situates contemporary poetic and cinematic body images in their cultural context. Elder examines how recent artists have tried to recognize and to convey primordial forms of experiences. He proposes the daring thesis that in their efforts to do so, artists have resorted to gnostic models of consciousness. He argues that the attempt to convey these primordial modes of awareness demands a different conception of artistic meaning from any of those that currently dominate contemporary critical discussion. By reworking theories and speech in highly original ways, Elder formulates this new conception. The works of Brakhage, Artaud, Schneeman, Cohen and others lie naked under Elder's razor-sharp dissecting knife and he exposes the essence of their work, cutting deeply into the themes and theses from which the works are derived. His remarks on the gaps in contemporary critical practices will likely become the focus of much debate.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents for Image and Identity: Reflections on Canadian Film and Culture by R. Bruce Elder Foreword Preface Acknowledgements Introduction PART ONE Introduction: In Reality, Who Are We? CHAPTER 1 A House Divided Three Primal Experiences The Garrison Mentality A Tragic Vision CHAPTER 2 Two Schools of Thought American-Style Liberalism The Epistemology of Empiricism Common Sense Dualism and Representation Common Sense and Calvinism Absolute Idealism The Absolute The Nation-State Absolute Idealism in Canada CHAPTER 3 An Aesthetic of Reconciliation PART TWO Introduction CHAPTER 4 The Documentary Film in Canada Absolute Idealism in Canada The Legacy of John Grierson The Influence of Grierson The Candid-Eye Movement The Crisis Structure of American Cinéma-vérité The Observational Structure of Candid-Eye Films Two Journalistic Influences The Empirical Character of the Candid-Eye Films Not a Love Story CHAPTER 5 Narrative Transmission in American Direct Cinema Films and Canadian Candid-Eye Films Narrative Modes of Transmission Agents of Narrative Transmission Cinéma-vérité as the Mimesis of a Mimesis Imagery as Illustration: the "Literary" Quality of NFB Documentaries The Days Before Christmas Candid-Eye Films and Common-Sense Philosophy Blood and Fire CHAPTER 6 The Reality Principle: "Goin' Down the Road" What Do Pete and Joey Want? Ideas and Actions The Repressions of the Reality Principle The Non-Empirical Cinema of Quebec The Problems of the Empirical Style The Limitations of the Reality Principle CHAPTER 7 Modes of Representation in Cinema The Cinema of Presentation, the Cinema of Illustration, the Cinema of Construction A Paradigmatic Contrast A Contrast of Epistemologies The Search-and-Discovery Structure in the Cinema of Presentation Some Historical Background Classical and Post-classical Art The Telos of Total Realism PART THREE Introduction CHAPTER 8 Michael Snow's "Wavelength" The Cinema of Presentation, the Cinema of Illustration, the Cinema of Construction A Minimal Film A Phenomenological Film A Durational Film A Dramatic Film An Experiential Film Drama, Space and Time Drama, Light and Sound Dramatic Form as a Narrowing of Possibility Drama and Temporal Continuity Remarks on the Zoom A Film of Purity The Achievement of the Film CHAPTER 9 From Painting into Cinema: A Study of Jack Chambers' "Circle" Two Tendencies in Twentieth-Century Art Chambers' Painting as a Prelude to Filmmaking Perceptual Realism and Romanticism Perceptual Realism and Photography Circle Circle : Section One Circle : Section Two Circle : Section Three CHAPTER 10 All Things in Their Time: On Michael Snow's The Background of the Film Snow's Multifaceted Work From Modernism to Postmodernism Experiencing Snow's Films Snow's Transcendental Self/p> Snow's Postmodernist Associates 1: David Rimmer Snow's Postmodernist Associates 11: Joyce Wieland CHAPTER 11 The Photographic Image in Canadian Avant-Garde Film The Background of the Film Postmodernism vs Modernism The Paradoxes of Photographic Representation Postmodernism and Otherness Camera Movement and Highlighting Absence: the Case of Chris Gallagher The Frame and Absent Space: the Cases of Epp and Snow Representation and Presentation: the Case of David Rimmer The Single-Shot Film The Relation of Text and Image: Postmodernist Strategies The Duality of Photography CHAPTER 12 Michael Snow Presents "Presents" Ut Pictura Poesis Modernism and the Metaphysics of Presence Presents and the Challenge to the Metaphysics of Presence Presents in the Light of Language Theory The Architecture of Presents So Is This in the Light of Language Theory Presence, Time, Language and Knowledge Reprise: Ut Pictura Poesis CHAPTER 13 Idealism, Photography and the Canadian Avant-Garde Film Graphic Cinema Peter Kubelka's Theory and Practice Eisenstein's Theory Germaine Dulac Sydney Peterson's Views Against the Petersonian View: Maya Deren Romanticism, Hegel, and the Underpinnings of a Canadian Attitude Towards Photography Self and Other: The Undergirding of Romanticism Chambers' Art: The Amalgam of Subjectivity and Objectivity The Rhythms of Life and Death: Chambers' Films Nature, Idealism and the Photograph in Canadian Thought CHAPTER 14 Forms of Cinema: Models of Self Image and Identity Hart of London La région centrale The Transcendental Self, La région centrale, and Idealist Thought Notes Appendix: Filmographies Bibliography Index