scholarly journals André Bazin's Eternal Returns: An Ontological Revision

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-61
Author(s):  
Jeff Fort
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Eternal Return ◽  
Actual Existence ◽  
Technical Artifact ◽  
Ontological Concept

The recent publication of André Bazin's Écrits complets (2018), an enormous two-volume edition of 3000 pages which increases ten-fold Bazin's available corpus, provides opportunities for renewed reflection on, and possibly for substantial revisions of, this key figure in film theory. On the basis of several essays, I propose a drastic rereading of Bazin's most explicitly philosophical notion of “ontology.” This all too familiar notion, long settled into a rather dust-laden couple (“Bazin and ontology”) nonetheless retains its fascination. Rather than attempting to provide a systematic reworking of this couple along well established lines, particularly those defined by realism and indexicality, this article proposes to shift the notion of ontology in Bazin from its determination as actual existence toward a more radical concept of ontology based on the notion of mimesis, particularly as articulated, in a Heideggerian mode, by Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. This more properly ontological concept, also paradoxically and radically improper, is shown to be at work already in Bazin's texts, and it allows us to see that far from simplistically naturalizing photographic technology, Bazin does the contrary: he technicizes nature. If Bazin says that the photograph is a flower or a snowflake, he also implies that, like photographs, these are likewise a kind of technical artifact, an auto-mimetic reproduction of nature. Bazin likewise refers to film as a kind of skin falling away from the body of History, an accumulating pellicule in which nature and history disturbingly merge. This shifted perspective on Bazin's thinking is extended further in reference to Georges Didi-Huberman on the highly mimetic creatures known as phasmids, insects that mimic their environement. I extend this into the dynamic notion of eternal return, an implicit dimension of Bazin's thinking, clarified here in reference to Giorgio Agamben and the “immemorial image” which, like Bazin's “Death Every Afternoon,” presents an eminently repeatable deathly image, an animated corpse-world that can be likened to hell.

scholarly journals The work of an invisible body

2014 ◽  
pp. 79-93
Author(s):  
Lucy Fife Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Functional Element ◽  
The Body ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Physical Action ◽  
Expressive Performance ◽  
Bob Fosse

On-screen bodies are central to our engagement with film. As sensory film theory seeks to remind us, this engagement is sensuous and embodied: our physicality forms sympathetic, kinetic and empathetic responses to the bodies we see and hear. We see a body jump, run and crash and in response we tense, twitch and flinch. But whose effort are we responding to? The character’s? The actor’s? This article explores the contribution of an invisible body in shaping our responsiveness to on-screen effort, that of the foley artist. Foley artists recreate a range of sounds made by the body, including footsteps, breath, face punches, falls, and the sound clothing makes as actors walk or run. Foley is a functional element of the filmmaking process, yet accounts of foley work note the creativity involved in these performances, which add to characterisation and expressivity. Drawing on detailed analysis of sequences in Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) and Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988) which foreground exertion and kinetic movement through dance and physical action, this article considers the affective contribution of foley to the physical work depicted on-screen. In doing so, I seek to highlight the extent to which foley constitutes an expressive performance that furthers our sensuous perception and appreciation of film.

scholarly journals The Use of Bodies by Giorgio Agamben

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Rachael C Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Existentialist Philosophy

This article reviews Giorgio Agamben's ninth installment in his Homo Sacer series, The Use of Bodies by Giorgio Agamben, translated by Adam Kotsko. The review considers Agamben's political philosophy framing of the body with reference to existentialist philosophy.

The securitization audience in theologico-political perspective: Giorgio Agamben, doxological acclamations, and paraconsistent logic

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. A. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Paraconsistent Logic ◽  
The Body ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
The Past ◽  
Active Audience ◽  
Political Perspective ◽  
Copenhagen School ◽  
Securitization Theory ◽  
Referent Object

Over the past two decades, securitization theory has developed into a robust literature of cases and critiques. The vast majority of the attention paid to securitization has been to the securitizing actor and the referent object, leaving the audience – the body that determines the fate of a securitizing move by accepting or rejecting the securitizing actor’s request – undertheorized. The audience is presented as a problematic contradiction, because as a collectivity called by the securitizing actor it appears to be a passive body, critiqued thereby as potentially irrelevant. On the other hand, both the original Copenhagen school formulation of securitization theory and many of its current theorists reaffirm the agency of the audience to actively determine the success or failure of the securitizing move. This article turns to political theology for guidance, and explains the contradiction of the passive/active audience through homology to the ekklesia and the acclamation of ‘amen’ in liturgical doxology. The fact that the congregation is passive recipient of a call does not negate the essential and substantial role that it must actively play, just as the contradiction of the passive/active description of the securitization audience is not a problem of illogic, but a paraconsistent truth.

Plato and the Invention of Life Itself

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Naas
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
The Body ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Life Itself

The final chapter takes many of the insights from the previous chapters in order to show, through a more general reading of Plato’s dialogues, how Plato attempts always to move from what is commonly called life, that is, from a more biological conception of life, a life of the body or of the animal, to a spiritual life or a life of the soul, that is, from something like bare life to real life, from particular life-forms to an essence or form of life itself, the only life, in end, worthy of the name for Plato. This chapter thus concentrates on several later dialogues in which Plato begins to distinguish two different valences of life, human life in the polis (bios) as opposed to what Giorgio Agamben calls “bare life” (zōē), but also, and more importantly, human life as opposed to something like real life. It is the initial distinction between human life and bare life that allows for this reinscription or transformation of bare life into something like real life or life itself, a transformation, it is argued, that is decisive not just for Plato but for the entire neo-Platonic and Christian tradition that takes its inspiration from him.

Summary

2015 ◽  
pp. 137-138
Author(s):  
Emily Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Approaches

This chapter summarises the study of Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her (2002). Talk to Her is a film that reflects the social and historical context of Spain and demonstrates many of Almodóvar's auteur characteristics. Its award-winning screenplay defies traditional conventions in genre and narrative structure whilst still creating something that is aesthetically pleasing and accessible to view. The interpretations cited in this book are not the only interpretations. This is a film which becomes richer through discussion and analysis and by approaching it from different critical approaches such as: auteur, genre, narrative, gender, and psychoanalytic film theory. Indeed, the film leaves the viewer with many interesting questions to consider. Ultimately, it is important to look at the film within the body of Almodóvar's work, particularly through exploring his depictions of rape.

scholarly journals Costuming gender : an investigation into the construction and perception of drag costume in mainstream film

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shari Tamar Akal
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Male Body ◽  
Drag Queen ◽  
Visual Appearance ◽  
Gendered Identity ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
Subsequent Discussion

The years succeeding 1990 have seen a significant increase in the release of mainstream film featuring transgendered characters. The inclusion of such characters in popular film becomes a point of interest as transgendered identities differ from the hegemonic heterosexism of the audiences at whom these films are targeted. This investigation aims to gain a better understanding of how audience members read gendered identity through the visual appearance of drag queen characters in mainstream film. Due to the emblematic contrast between the male body and a hyper-feminine dress aesthetic, drag queens pose an overt visual challenge to the normative expectation of anatomical sex determining gender and gendered expression. This investigation is conducted from the paradigmatic perspective that recognises the impossibility of a ‘correct’ reading of dress aesthetics and is thus concerned with discovering the various gendered meanings audience members may attach to drag costume in film. This interpretivist standpoint, however, is held in conjunction with the critical understanding that prevalent contemporary socio-political constructs with regard to gender and dress will undoubtedly affect these perceptions. Segments from selected Hollywood films featuring drag queen protagonists were screened for a heterogeneous focus group and the subsequent discussion analysed through critical discourse analysis. Academic discourse concerning the socially constructed gender dichotomy and the debated subversive potential of the drag act is reviewed in order to provide a theoretical framework for analysing the participants’ comprehension of gendered performance. Gendered associations with dress and the body together with film theory are examined to better understand how an audience may perceive gendered identity through drag costume in film and what affect this may have on their conception of sartorial gendered expressions in reality. Finally, to situate and provide further context for this investigation, Queer theory critiques of the representation and reception of transgendered characters in past mainstream films are considered.

scholarly journals Hybrids of Mind and Body: The Forms and Freedoms of the Cyborg in Posthumanist Science Fiction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Berman Ghan
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Divine Law

[Introduction] The Cyborg as a figure in popular culture – the body in a literal state of “human/machine symbiosis” (Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman 112) – has sometimes been conceived as a monstrous figure, as a figure of otherness, a being whose status as a hybrid has placed them into the figure of what Giorgio Agamben might refer to as “the Homo Sacer, a person [who] is simply set outside human jurisdiction without being brought into the realm of divine law” (Agamben, Sovereign Power and Bare Life 82). The Homo Sacer, in other words, is a being who has been stripped of all recognition and humanity, deserving neither the rights of a human being or any other animal, and has come to be acknowledged only as an object. Agamben further defines the life of Homo Sacer’s exclusion as “unsacrificeability and [yet] is included in the community in the form of being able to be killed” (82), meaning that Homo Sacer can be killed, but that their killing would never constitute murder, as their life has no recognizable value.

scholarly journals Postmodern messiahs: the changing saviours of contemporary popular culture

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 196-212
Author(s):  
Sofia Sjö
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Feminist Film Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
Feminist Film

The messiah myth is alive and well in the modern world. Contemporary science fiction film has taken the myth to heart and given us an endless stream of larger than life heroes. The heroes of the present are, however, not exactly the same as the heroes of the past. A changing world demands new things of its saviours. Using a textual and narrative analysis based on insights gained from feminist film theory and cultural studies, this article looks closely at the messiah theme in science fiction films and TV series from the last three decades. The study explores the changes that have occurred in relation to images of the body, the attitudes and personalities of modern heroes, gender, questions of power and ideas of the transcendent. The article then discusses what these changes both between newer and older heroes and between contemporary heroes and the traditional messiah story might say about religion and spirituality in the modern world. Finally the article explores the question of why the messiah myth still finds an audience today.

scholarly journals O coronavírus e a vontade de poder: uma leitura nietzschiana sanguíneo-vascular | Coronavirus and the will to power: a blood vascular Nietzschean reading

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Everton Nery Carneiro ◽  
Marcelo Máximo Purificação ◽  
Emerson Nery Carneiro
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Force Fields ◽  
The Body ◽  
Eternal Return ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
Theology And Philosophy

É preciso compreender o que é um vírus e principalmente sua ação. Assim, trabalhamos o referencial nietzschiano, que intenta a construção de uma base teórica para fundamentar sua hermenêutica/perspectiva sobre a vida, sendo esta na vida, inexistido separação nítida/perceptível entre ciência, teologia, arte e filosofia.  Seguiremos aqui com a biologia (ciência), não divorciada da teologia, visando fundamentar a concepção de vontade-de-poder, numa dimensão filosófica. Na primeira parte, desenvolvemos a compreensão de que caos e cosmo (teologicamente e filosoficamente) são indispensáveis na constituição orgânica e inorgânica, entendendo que o mundo é um caos eterno e qualquer projeção de padrão, ordem ou objetivo é um mero antropomorfismo. Assim, entendemos que a luta, o polemos está estabelecido e, tudo isso pode ocorrer antes mesmo do corpo apresentar quaisquer sinais de enfermidades. Na segunda parte, retomamos o conceito de “eterno retorno”, degustando o aforismo 341. Eterno retorno, que é uma construção filosófica nietzschiana, construído a partir da compreensão teológica de Eclesiastes 2. Por último movimento do texto, apresentamos o para não concluir, que a guisa de um final de artigo, produz pontos elucidativos, aqui um ao qual destacamos:  A vontade-de-poder trabalha uma hermenêutica ao constituir o mundo como uma relação entre campos de força instáveis e em constante conflito e autoconfiguração. AbstractIt is necessary to understand what a virus is and, in general terms, its action. Thus, we work with the Nietzschean framework, which attempts to build a theoretical basis to support his hermeneutics / perspective on life, which is in life, there is no clear / noticeable separation between science, theology and philosophy. We will continue here with biology (science), not divorced from theology, aiming to base the conception of will-to-power, in a philosophical dimension. In the first part, we developed the understanding that chaos and cosmos (theologically and philosophically) are indispensable in organic and inorganic constitution, understanding that the world is eternal chaos and any projection of pattern, order or objective is a mere anthropomorphism. Thus, we understand that the struggle, the polemic, is established and all of this can happen even before the body shows any signs of illness. In the second part, we return to the concept of "eternal return", tasting the aphorism 341. Finally, we present the not to conclude that, as a way of concluding the article, produces elucidating points, one of them here highlighted: The will-to-power hermeneutically constitutes the world as a relationship between unstable force fields and in constant conflict and self-configuration.É preciso compreender o que é um vírus e principalmente sua ação. Assim, trabalhamos o referencial nietzschiano, que intenta a construção de uma base teórica para fundamentar sua hermenêutica/perspectiva sobre a vida, sendo esta na vida, inexistido separação nítida/perceptível entre ciência, teologia, arte e filosofia.  Seguiremos aqui com a biologia (ciência), não divorciada da teologia, visando fundamentar a concepção de vontade-de-poder, numa dimensão filosófica. Na primeira parte, desenvolvemos a compreensão de que caos e cosmo (teologicamente e filosoficamente) são indispensáveis na constituição orgânica e inorgânica, entendendo que o mundo é um caos eterno e qualquer projeção de padrão, ordem ou objetivo é um mero antropomorfismo. Assim, entendemos que a luta, o polemos está estabelecido e, tudo isso pode ocorrer antes mesmo do corpo apresentar quaisquer sinais de enfermidades. Na segunda parte, retomamos o conceito de “eterno retorno”, degustando o aforismo 341. Eterno retorno, que é uma construção filosófica nietzschiana, construído a partir da compreensão teológica de Eclesiastes 2. Por último movimento do texto, apresentamos o para não concluir, que a guisa de um final de artigo, produz pontos elucidativos, aqui um ao qual destacamos:  A vontade-de-poder trabalha uma hermenêutica ao constituir o mundo como uma relação entre campos de força instáveis e em constante conflito e autoconfiguração.

Bodies, Gestus, Becoming: Cinema as a Technology of Gender and (Post)memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-571
Author(s):  
Belén Ciancio
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Feminist Film Theory ◽  
Political Cinema ◽  
Feminist Film ◽  
The One ◽  
The Third World

The first issue this essay examines is the articulation of the cinema of the body, the feminine gestus, and the ‘political cinema’, which begins with the philosophical shout, ‘Give me a body, then!’ and ends with the ‘Third World Cinema’ as a cinema of memory. How is this Deleuzian concept in tension with the one proposed here of ‘missing body’? The second issue concerns the importance of the body for theory and practice within feminist film theory and queer theory. The question of the body is introduced in-between these two lines in the context of a series of Latin American documentaries. The final problem is then how to see and show a body that is missing, like an outside of the body image, and of a certain regime of the visible and the audible that tends to be fixed in topics by the production of technologies of (post)memory.

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