The Memory of Tiresias: Intertextuality and FilmThe concept of intertextuality has proven of inestimable value in recent attempts to understand the nature of literature and its relation to other systems of cultural meaning. In The Memory of Tiresias, Mikhail Iamposlki presents the first sustained attempt to develop a theory of cinematic intertextuality. Building on the insights of semiotics and contemporary film theory, Iampolski defines cinema as a chain of transparent, mimetic fragments intermixed with quotations he calls "textual anomalies." These challenge the normalization of meaning and seek to open reading out onto the unlimited field of cultural history, which is understood in texts as a semiotically active extract, already inscribed. Quotations obstruct mimesis and are consequently transformed in the process of semiosis, an operation that Iampolski defines as reading in an aura of enigma. In a series of brilliant analyses of films by D.W. Griffith, Sergei Eisenstein, and Luis Buñuel, he presents different strategies of intertextual reading in their work. His book suggests the continuing centrality of semiotic analysis and is certain to interest film historians and theorists, as well as readers in cultural and literary studies. |
Contents
7 | |
NARRATIVES WAY | 49 |
Repressing the Source D W GRIFFITH | 51 |
Intertextuality and the Evolution of Cinematic Language Griffith and the Poetic Tradition | 83 |
BEYOND NARRATIVE AVANTGRADE CINEMA | 123 |
Cinematic Language as Quotation Cendrars and Leger | 125 |
Intertext against Intertext Bunuel and Dalis Un Chien andaou | 162 |
THEORISTS WHO PRACTICED | 191 |
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Common terms and phrases
anagram appears Artaud artistic avant-garde Ballet mécanique becomes Benjamin Péret Blaise Cendrars Breton Browning Browning's Buñuel Cendrars's Chien andalou cinema Citizen Kane cradle creating culture D. W. Griffith Dali death Delaunay Delaunay's donkey Eisenstein elements elephants Emerson Enoch Arden episode fact Fernand Léger figure film's function Gallimard Gance Gance's Griffith's films hero hieroglyph Ibid idea intertextual Izbrannye kind Léger Lieutenant Kizhe Lindsay linked literary meaning metaphor mirror montage Moscow motif movement myth narrative nature novel object Oeuvres complètes painting Paris parodic Paul Péret Pippa Passes play plot poem poet poetic poetry Poruchik principle quotation quote reading representation repression Roue Sands of Dee scene screenplay semantic Sergei Eisenstein shot significance skeleton song story structure surrealist symbol textual theater theatrical theme theory things tion Tiresias tradition transformation Tynianov Un Chien andalou viewer vision visual wheel woman words writing