“You’re One of Me”? Body as a Medium of Identity in the Films of David Cronenberg

Klaudia Rachubińska

Abstract

The subject of the article are the changes in the complex relationship between body and identity in the work of David Cronenberg over the last 25 years that passed since he entered mainstream cinema. Using the example of Scanners, the first film that put the question of identity center-stage, bodily basis of identity typical for the early work of the director is described, as well as the consequences of the blurring of bodily boundaries for the way protagonists perceive their own “I”. The Dead Zone and the Spider show a gradual shift in the director’s interest, from issues related to the spacial boundaries of the body to the question about the continuity of identity in time and the problem of the body as a carrier of information. These problems are further explored in the two later films of the director: A History of violence and Eastern Promises, which testify to the director’s changing perspective on the question of the body and identity; it is at the same time a change of perspective from an individual to sociopolitical one.