Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema

A radical history of transness in cinema, and an exploration of the political possibilities of its future.

In the history of cinema, trans people are usually murdered, made into a joke, or viewed as threats to the normal order -- relegated to a lost highway of corpses, fools, and monsters.

In this book, trans film critics Caden Mark Gardner and Willow Catelyn Maclay take the reader on a drive down this lost highway, exploring the way that trans people and transness have evolved on-screen.

Starting from the very earliest representations of transness in silent film, through to the multiplex-conquering Matrix franchise and on to the emergence of a true trans-authored cinema, Corpses, Fools and Monsters spans everything from musicals to body horror to avant garde experimental film to tell the story of the trans film image. In doing so, the authors investigate the wider history of trans representation -- an exhilarating journey of compromise, recuperation, and potential liberation that they argue is only just the beginning.

Publisher: Repeater
Published: 07/09/2024
Pages: 340
Weight: 0.81lbs
ISBN: 9781914420580

About the Author
Willow Catelyn Maclay is a freelance film essayist and critic. She has written for the Village Voice, MUBI, Vulture and Roger Ebert.com. She contributed to the film anthologies Laura's Ghost: Women Speak About Twin Peaks and She Found it at the Movies: Women Writers on Sex, Desire and Cinema.
Caden Mark Gardner is a freelance trans film critic and researcher on trans film images. He has written for the Criterion Collection, MUBI, Film Comment, Reverse Shot, and other film outlets in the United States.