French Literature Reviews - 2026
Shameful Images
Art and Visual Culture
SHAMEFUL IMAGES
edited by Murielle Gagnebin and Julien Milly
Back cover:
There are images fit to represent shame, alongside shameless images, and finally images that experience shame within their very folds. Can we say that our culture takes pleasure in playing with shamelessness, opprobrium, and abjection? Does it seek to trap them or to exalt them? What is the meaning of the temptation of the snuff movie—those "forbidden" films that seek to capture the work of death upon faces or in ultimate postures, and thereby violate what lies at the deepest core of being, of identity?
This book explores the "scabies of the psyche," the aesthetics of the ugly transformed into "trash" or "destroy," an apology for the foul. "Blushing with shame" has become obsolete at a time when one can "die of shame" under the weight of humiliations or existential affronts. Wim Delvoye's "Cloaca machine" and G. von Hagens's falsified anatomies of death row inmates stage the human-as-refuse, whereas other artists, confronting the terror of psychosis, images of the Gulag, or even Auschwitz—that "anus of the world"—manage to sublimate the sordid into the tragic. The works of visual artists (Zoran Music, David Nebreda), writers (Shalamov, Tisha), and filmmakers (Béla Tarr, Fassbinder, Haneke, etc.), among many others, are examined here.
The diverse questions proper to the humanities apply across multiple fields of art: history of mentalities, aesthetics, psychoanalysis. The answers appear contrasted: loss of bearings, absence of ideals, the violence contained in the act of seeing, denial of shame, valorization of acting out, transparency of the intimate. Ultimately, might there be an emotion specific to shameful images? And what would be their destiny and function?
Murielle Gagnebin
Texts by
Bruno-Nassim ABOUDRAR, Paul ARDENNE, Claude BALIER, Georges BANU, Gérard BONNET, Marie-Camille BOUCHINDOMME, Baptiste DEBICKI, Paul DENIS, Martine EDROSA, Virginie FOLOPPE, Murielle GAGNEBIN, Cécile GIRAUD, Tristan GRÜNBERG, Gladys JARREAU, Isabelle KAMIENIAK, Jean-Pierre KAMIENIAK, David LENGYEL, Jean-Louis LEUTRAT, Ophir LEVY, Corinne MAURY, Julien MILLY, Georges NIVAT, Guivaine ROCHEDY, Gwenaël TISON, Corinne de THOURY, Gérard WAJCMAN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Hyperbole or Stunned Thought?
by Murielle Gagnebin
I
DENYING OPPROBRIUM: SHAMELESS IMAGES
The Negation of Shame
by Paul Denis
The Scandalous Image of the Crucifixion
by Corinne de Thoury
On Shameful Parts
by Bruno-Nassim Aboudrar
Irreverence and Degradation: A Cultural Perspective
by Paul Ardenne
II
CULTIVATING SHAME: FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE?
The Boundaries of the Intimate. Exposed Intimacy, Extorted Intimacy.
by Gérard Wajcman
The Circles of Shame. Five Remarks on Space and Bodies in Pier Paolo Pasolini's *Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom*
by Corinne Rondeau
*Werckmeister Harmonies*, or the Theater of Human Vacuity
by Gwenaël Tison
Within the Human, the Fracture…
by Ophir Levy
III
DISSECTING SHAME: THE AESTHETIC MECHANISMS OF OUTRAGE
Images That Blush…
Colors of Shame from Caravaggio to Fassbinder
by Tristan Grünberg
Beneath Mary's Cloak…
Around Piero della Francesca's *Madonna del Parto*, Gustave Courbet's *The Origin of the World*, Gustav Klimt's *Hope*
by Marie-Camille Bouchindomme
Flying Over the Barnyard Ruled by the Rooster (How to Depict Shame in Cinema?)
by David Lengyel
Degrading Image, Redeeming Image—How to Represent the Camp?
by Georges Nivat
IV
TRAPPING SHAME: GAMES AND COUNTER-GAMES
The German Stage and the Aesthetics of the Ugly
by Georges Banu
Blushing the Other Stage
by Virginie Foloppe
Laughter and Shame in Burlesque Cinema
by Cécile Giraud
The New World. *Werckmeister Harmonies* or the Shameful Eclipse of Innocence
by Baptiste Debicki
The Work as Master of the Spectator: Dark Equivocations
by Murielle Gagnebin
V
"ACTING OUT" SHAME:
CLINICAL STUDIES AND ICONOGRAPHIES OF AN IDENTITARIAN DISASTER
Dying of Shame or Blushing with Shame
by Gérard Bonnet
From Criminal Acting Out to Representation
by Claude Balier and Gladys Jarreau
From the Failure of the "Feeling of Existing" to Sacrifice: Thinking the Clinic of the Serial Killer Through Winnicott
by Martine Edrosa
Death Imaged: The Scenography of the Serial Killer (Michael Haneke's *Funny Games*)
by Julien Milly
VI
MOVING BEYOND SHAME: FILMING THE AGONIZING BEING
Screens of Death—The Slaughterhouse in Cinema
by Corinne Maury
*Nick's Movie* or the Art of Thwarting Shame
by Guivaine Rochedy
The Snuff Movie: A Paradoxical Simulacrum
by Jean-Pierre Kamieniak
The Snuff Movie: Rumor, Illusion, and Paradox
by Isabelle Kamieniak
Johnny Depp's *The Brave*
by Jean-Louis Leutrat
AFTERWORD
The Penultimate Figure
by Julien Milly
NOTES ON THE AUTHORS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The study of shame within the visual arts and humanities often intersects with psychoanalysis and the history of mentalities. By examining how artists and filmmakers represent the human body as refuse or navigate the boundaries of the intimate, scholars address the tension between the aestheticization of the sordid and the tragic. This volume considers how various cultural forms, ranging from the burlesque to the depiction of historical trauma, engage with the concept of the ugly and the foul. Readers interested in the intersection of visual culture and psychological states may find this collection of essays relevant.
The contributors examine works by artists such as Zoran Music and David Nebreda, and filmmakers including Béla Tarr, Fassbinder, and Michael Haneke, to confront themes of psychosis and existential affronts. The text investigates the role of the image in capturing the work of death and the ways in which contemporary society oscillates between the denial of shame and the valorization of acting out. By placing these diverse artistic practices under scrutiny, the authors reflect on the function of the shameful image and its capacity to evoke or sublimate human humiliations within the landscape of modern aesthetics.