The work of art, according to Walter Benjamin, calls for critique. That critique can come from another work of art and in another medium. Godard was as fascinated by the play between the system, or non-system, of genres and media, with Contempt being an instance of a reflection on what happens when one tries to rework one work in another, not least when the later work is separated from the earlier by chasms of history. The dynamics in Godard’s filming of the project of filming The Odyssey will be examined for what they tell us about necessities and impossibilities of translation. In this light, there will also be a good deal of attention to various sorts of repetition in the film, with and without differences.
IAN BALFOUR is Professor of English and of Social & Political Thought at York University. He is the author of several books, including The Rhetoric of Romantic Prophecy, and numerous essays on popular and unpopular culture (Pee Wee Herman, Pet Shop Boys, Kiarostami, Jean-Luc Nancy, etc.). With Atom Egoyan he co-edited Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film and with Eduardo Cadava And Justice for All?: The Claims of Human Rights, a special double issue of South Atlantic Quarterly. He was also the sole editor of a SAQ volume on Late Derrida. He is currently completing a book on The Language of the Sublime.
IAN BALFOUR is Professor of English and of Social & Political Thought at York University. He is the author of several books, including The Rhetoric of Romantic Prophecy, and numerous essays on popular and unpopular culture (Pee Wee Herman, Pet Shop Boys, Kiarostami, Jean-Luc Nancy, etc.). With Atom Egoyan he co-edited Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film and with Eduardo Cadava And Justice for All?: The Claims of Human Rights, a special double issue of South Atlantic Quarterly. He was also the sole editor of a SAQ volume on Late Derrida. He is currently completing a book on The Language of the Sublime.