Inhabiting the Overlook Hotel. The role of anempathic space in “The Shining”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i2.5978Keywords:
Stanley Kubrick, The Shining, cinematic space, embodied metaphor, emotion and moodAbstract
A major cause of the anxiety evoked in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is related to the indifference to human events displayed by architectural space. The verb “to overlook” has several meanings, including “to disregard” and “to underestimate”. This paper thus focuses on the role played in the film by the Overlook Hotel, a space that may indeed be described as “anempathic” towards characters’ actions and situations. Two aspects of the spatiality of The Shining are discussed in particular. The first one concerns the configuration of cinematic space: the role of set design, camera movements and editing choices, as they emerge from the formal analysis of the film and from the consideration of the numerous documents and testimonies currently available. Having pointed out the environmental vocation of Kubrick’s storytelling, a second aspect is discussed: the cognitive and affective experience provided by the filmic space, in accordance with an embodied cognition perspective. In particular, the paper takes into account Kubrick’s systematic inclination to disorient the viewer, and the resulting construction of embodied metaphors of a spatial kind. Through these strategies, Kubrick evokes both an uncanny mood and abstract meanings.
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