“Look deep into yourself”:
European Perspectives on The Silence of the Lambs

by Thomas Elsaesser

By now a classic of the modern horror genre, The Silence of the Lambs has, in North America, provoked a range of feminist and gender-studies interpretations.  But there have also been some notable European responses, such as those in Germany by Klaus Theweleit and by a Jungian art historian.  In their generic, metapsychological and mythological readings, these authors—neither of them a film scholar—offer complementary accounts to those of classical feminist film theory with regards to this film, indicating, for instance, a way of re-situating the popularity and cultural resonance of modern horror cinema.

Thomas Elsaesser is Professor in the Department of Art and Culture at the University of Amsterdam and Chair of Film and Television Studies.  His writings on film theory, national cinema and film history are frequently featured in collections and anthologies.  His books as author and editor include New German Cinema: A History (1989), Early Cinema: Space Frame Narrative (1990), Writing for the Medium: Television in Transition (1994), A Second Life: German Cinema’s First Decades (1996), Fassbinder’s Germany: History, Identity, Subject (1996), Cinema Futures: Cain, Abel or Cable (1998), The BFI Companion to German Cinema (1999), Weimar Cinema and After (2000), and Metropolis (2000).

  epff@psychoanalysis.org.uk