Anthony Siu

Architectural Grotesque Anthony Siu

In addressing the structure and political potentials of affects as something different from that of emotions in cognitive science, Architectural Grotesque employs the concept of the grotesque to frame and theorize the various affects produced in literature, cinema, and cultures. Using continental philosophy (Foucault, Deleuze, Badiou, and Agamben) and psychoanalytic criticism (Freud, Lacan), it argues for the need to build a new tradition different from the subversion and perversion emphasized in Queer Cinema. Written for those interested in cinema, gender, and critical theories, it is also an endeavor in the architectural sense in its mapping of the political space beyond these parameters. The New Queer Cinematic formed in this way is therefore an articulation of the finest, affective moments that we overlook both in European auteurs such as Antonioni, Fassbinder, Godard, and Pasolini, and in American geniuses such as Gus van Sant, Jonathan Caouette, Todd Solondz, and Matthew Barney.