An Amazonian Non-Human Subject and theRe-enchantment of the World in The Shape of Water

Park Jungwon

doi:10.21049/ccs.2021.62..1

Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 film, The Shape of Water, tells an unconventional love story between a mute woman and an amphibious creature from the Amazon. Many critics illuminate the individuals of sexual, racial and social minority involved in the rescue plan of this creature, and highlight their affective solidarity. In addition to these analyses, this study contributes an ecological interpretation of the film by focusing on the identity of the non-human being itself. The violent acts of detention and torture that were imposed upon this creature, including its capture in the Amazon and shipment to the U.S., can be read as an allegory to “ecocide,” which is executed in the name of development and progress, and is embedded with the idea that humans and nature should be separated. While putting contemporary conceptions of anthropocentrism into question, del Toro shapes an alternative image of this ecologic idea through a romance drama. The intimate love between a human and non-human creature signifies the possibility for unlimited interaction, communication and negotiation between different species, and symbolizes the Amazonian worldview, which emphasizes co-existence. As a result, The Shape of Water suggests the need to create a new kind of relationship between humans and humans, humans and non-humans, and humans and nature.

Citation status

KCI Citation Counts (3)
열림/닫힘 버튼
REFERENCES (21)
열림/닫힘 버튼
* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

[journal] 박정원 / 2020 / Amerindian Perspectivism in the Anthropocene / 이베로아메리카 연구 / 라틴아메리카연구소 31(3) : 45~73 / 10.22927/snuibe.2020.31.3.45

[book] 발터 벤야민 / 2008 / 발터 벤야민 선집 5 / 도서출판 길 : 141~167

[book] 브뤼노 라투르 / 2009 / 우리는 결코 근대인이었던 적이 없다 / 갈무리

[journal] 정동섭 / 2018 / The Contemporaneity of the Uncontemporary in the Guillermo Del Toro’s Film "The Shape of Water"(2017) / 스페인라틴아메리카연구 / 스페인 라틴아메리카 연구소 11(2) : 149~169 / 10.18217/kjhs.11.2.201811.149

[journal] Adamson, Joni / 2020 / People of Water: El Río, The Shape of Water, and the Rights of Nature / Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 27(3) : 596~612

[journal] Adji, Alberta Natasia / 2019 / Falling for the Amphibian Man: Fantasy, Otherness, and Auteurism in del Toro’s The Shape of Water / IAFOR, Journal of Media, Communication & Film 6(1) : 51~64

[journal] Chamberlain, Edward / 2019 / Rethinking the Monstrous: Gender, Otherness, and Space in the Cinematic Storytelling of Arrival and The Shape of Water / CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 21(7)

[book] Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome / 1996 / Monster Theory: Reading Culture / University of Minnesota Press

[journal] Dávila Figueroa, Ruth A / 2020 / La doble función ideológica de la narrativa alterna de La forma del agua / Cultura y representaciones sociales 14(28) : 178~190

[web] Debruge, Peter / 2017 / With ‘The Shape of Water’, Guillermo del Toro Realizes a Lifelong Monster Dream / Variety / http://www.variety.com/2017/film/features/director-guillermo-del-toro-1202543106/

[book] de la Cadena, Marisol / 2018 / A World of Many Worlds / Duke University Press

[book] DeLoughrey, Elizabeth M / 2019 / Allegories of the Anthropocene / Duke University Press

[book] del Toro, Guillermo / 2017 / The Shape of Water / Fox Searchlight

[web] Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional / 1996 / Cuarta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona / http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/1996/01/01/cuartadeclaracion-de-la-selva-lacandona/

[book] Escobar, Arturo / 2016 / Autonomía y Diseño: La Realización de lo comunal, Popayan / Editorial de la Universidad del Cauca

[journal] Gaines, Alexandra R / 2020 / Embracing the Monster: The Films of Guillermo del Toro / The Macksey Journal 1(49)

[journal] Garrels, Elizabeth Jane / 2019 / Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water (2017): Trump Era Update of Cold War Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and Civil War Reckoning El laberinto del Fauno (2006) / Periferica: A Journal of Social, Cultural and Literary History 1(1) : 11~35

[journal] Jikén, Olle / 2019 / Aquatic Heterosexual Love and Wonderous Cliché Stereotypes: Amphibian Masculinity, the Beast Bridegroom Motif and ‘the Other’ in The Shape of Water / Coolabah (27) : 136~149

[book] Latour, Bruno / 1998 / Remaking Reality: Nature at the Millenium / Routledge : 221~242

[journal] Mitchel, David T. / 2019 / Room for (Materiality’s Maneuver: Reading the Oppositional in Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water / Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 58(4) : 150~156

[journal] Smith, Jennifer Degnan / 2019 / The Shape of Water: An Ecopsychological Fairy Tale / Ecopsychology 11(1) : 43~48

이 논문은 한국연구재단의 지원을 받아 작성되었습니다.

KJC Korea
Journal Central

Statistics

Tools

Sharing

Issue List

Citation status