Home    Number 6, 2014

Showtime for Cannibals

Type of publication: Research Article

About author(s)

L.D. Bugaeva | ldbugaeva@gmail.com

Keywords

cannibalism, cinema, cannibal film, survival film, colonial cannibal, postapocalyptic cannibal, metaphor of cannibalism

Abstract

The article discusses cinematographic representations of cannibalism: from the first screen cannibals in silent fi lms to the post-apocalyptic cannibal of the present. The interpretations of this theme that had been set at the dawn of cinema – metaphorical cannibalism (Greed), survival cannibalism (Gold Rush), colonial cannibalism (West of Zanzibar), deferred cannibalism, and cannibalism per se (Sweeney Todd) – in many ways defined the framework for further on-screen life of cannibals. The author examines different paradigms of cannibalism in movies and various conversions of the cannibal which is assuming an international and universalistic shape in contemporary cinema.

Citation

Bugaeva, L.D. 2014. Showtime for Cannibals. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 6: 6-21

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