Carnal Thoughts

Vivian Sobchack is Professor and Associate Dean in the School of Theater, Film, and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film (1997) and The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience (1992) and the editor of Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick Change (2000) and The Persistence of History: Cinema, Television, and the Modern Event (1996), among other books.

"Carnal Thoughts wonderfully conveys the phenomenological aim of Sobchack's work. It is an important contribution to the field. It is also accessible and almost scandalously fun to read. The voice of a wise, eloquent, and witty woman emerges from these pages and keeps the reader constantly engaged." - Linda Williams, author of Playing the Race Card; "Powerfully written and movingly personal, Carnal Thoughts consistently demonstrates what an embodied film criticism might actually be. Sobchack is insistent, impassioned, and persuasive in her attempt to show how cinematic spectatorship is always more than visual. The scholarship is superior, the organization is strong, and the literary style is accomplished, engaging, and polished. This is an extremely important work." - Patrice Petro, author of Aftershocks of the New"