„Tropical Malady”, or on Humans, Animals and Spirits in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s film Cover Image

„Choroba tropikalna”, czyli o ludziach, zwierzętach i duchach w filmie Apichatponga Weerasethakula
„Tropical Malady”, or on Humans, Animals and Spirits in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s film

Author(s): Krzysztof Loska
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Thai cinema; animal studies; multinatural perspectivism; animism; Gilles Deleuze; Félix Guattari

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyzes the relations between humans and non-humans and explains the process of „becoming-animal” (devenir-animal) on the basis of the film entitled Tropical Malady (Sat pralat, 2004) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The source of inspiration is multinatural perspectivism introduced by Philippe Descola and Eduard Viveiros de Castro to ethnographic research on animistic beliefs, and by the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Moving away from an anthropocentric perspective, the author draws attention to several major problems: the need to challenge the opposition between nature and culture, questioning the mental discontinuity between different types of entities, pointing to the possibility of liberating humans from subjectivity by freeing them from established categories (biological, social, cultural ones) and opening them for relations with Others (animals, ghosts, plants).

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 110
  • Page Range: 172-186
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Polish