Jean-Luc Godard and the other history of cinema

Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du cinema (1988-1998) is a video work made up of visual and verbal quotations of hundreds of images and sounds from film history. But rather than simply telling (hi)stories of cinema, Godard makes a case for cinema as a tool for performing the work of history. This is partly because the film image, by virtue of always recording more of the real than was anticipated or intended, necessarily has history itself inscribed within its very fabric. It is also because montage, as the art of combining discrete elements in new ways in order to produce original forms, can be seen as a machine for realising historical thought. This thesis examines these ideas by discussing Godard's account of the role of cinema in the Second World War, and by analysing some of his recent work as examples of historical montage which attempt to criticise our current political climate through comparison with earlier eras. After a first chapter which sets out Godard's argument through an extensive commentary of Histoire(s) 1A and B, a second chapter discusses Godard's depiction of the invention of cinema and traces a complex argument about technology and historical responsibility around the key metaphorical figure of the train. Chapter 3 explores the ways in which Godard's historical approach to cinema allows him to maintain a critical discourse with regard to the geopolitical realities of late twentieth-century Europe (Germany, the Balkans), but also to the communications and business empires that have developed over the past few decades. A final chapter offers a detailed consideration of the nature of Godard's cinematic quotation and seeks to explicate the apocalyptic rhetoric of his late work. Aside from Histoire(s) du cinema, films discussed include Nouvelle Vague (1990), Allemagne neuf zero (1991), For Ever Mozart (1996) and Eloge de l'amour (2001)

The uses of (an)other history: a digression from Linda Colley's Britishness and otherness: an argument

The question that animates this paper is deceptively simple: what is brought into ‘play’ in the conjunction of the signifiers ‘Britishness’ and ‘Otherness’? Is the coupling of these two terms merely a taxonomic convenience, a way of marking out apparently fixed, mostly immutable categories such as ‘nation’, ‘cultural practice’, ‘ethnicity’ and ‘Empire’? Or, conversely, is the opposition of ‘Britain-as-subject’ and its panoply of archipelagic and colonial ‘objects’ essentially a tactical manoeuvre driven by ongoing investments in a particular kind of narrative economy

From One Crisis to the Other: History and Literature in The Crisis from 1910 to the Early 1920s

This essay investigates the role of literature and the links between literature, news-reporting, and history in the NAACP magazine The Crisis between 1910 and the early 1920s. We do not study literature per se and do not provide an analysis of the literary style, nor do we assess the literariness of the short stories and poems printed in the 1910s. Rather, we examine the place accorded literature in the Crisis and its role in relation to the rest of the magazine, from news commentary, political essays, and echoes of the African past, to illustrations and advertisements

Make (Other) History: Genealogy Building in the Work of Effy Beth

En el presente artículo se realizará un análisis de un corpus de obras de la artista trans Elizabeth Mía Chorubczyk (1988-2014), también conocida como «Effy Beth», considerando las relaciones que éstas articulan con la historia del arte y con las narrativas institucionalizadas de los feminismos. La obra de Effy constituye un complejo dispositivo de construcción y de acceso al pasado donde, a partir de la cita a artistas mujeres cis y feministas, principalmente europeas y estadounidenses, y de la estrategia poético-crítica de retomar temas y procedimientos artísticos trabajados por las mismas, se tensionan los límites de dichas narrativas para señalar las mecánicas de poder cisnormado que operan en los relatos de la historia del arte.In this paper we’ll analize a body of works by trans artist Elizabeth Mía Chorubczyk (1988-2014), also known as «Effy Beth», considering the relationships they articulate with art history and with institucionalized narratives of feminisms. Effy’s work constitutes a complex device of construction and accesss to the past where,starting from references to feminist cis women artists, mainly american and european, and the poetic-critical strategy of retaking themes and artistic procedures worked by them, the limits of these narratives are stressed, pointing out cisnormative power mechanics that operate regulating and administrating the art history narrations.Facultad de Bellas Arte

Make (Other) History: Genealogy Building in the Work of Effy Beth

En el presente artículo se realizará un análisis de un corpus de obras de la artista trans Elizabeth Mía Chorubczyk (1988-2014), también conocida como «Effy Beth», considerando las relaciones que éstas articulan con la historia del arte y con las narrativas institucionalizadas de los feminismos. La obra de Effy constituye un complejo dispositivo de construcción y de acceso al pasado donde, a partir de la cita a artistas mujeres cis y feministas, principalmente europeas y estadounidenses, y de la estrategia poético-crítica de retomar temas y procedimientos artísticos trabajados por las mismas, se tensionan los límites de dichas narrativas para señalar las mecánicas de poder cisnormado que operan en los relatos de la historia del arte.In this paper we’ll analize a body of works by trans artist Elizabeth Mía Chorubczyk (1988-2014), also known as «Effy Beth», considering the relationships they articulate with art history and with institucionalized narratives of feminisms. Effy’s work constitutes a complex device of construction and accesss to the past where,starting from references to feminist cis women artists, mainly american and european, and the poetic-critical strategy of retaking themes and artistic procedures worked by them, the limits of these narratives are stressed, pointing out cisnormative power mechanics that operate regulating and administrating the art history narrations.Facultad de Bellas Arte

Coronal Plane: Cristin Millett

Coronal Plane is the culmination of Millett’s research on the anatomical theater at the University of Padua built in 1594, the oldest surviving anatomy theater in the world. The installation allows viewers to walk into and through a space that evokes physical, emotional, and psychological reactions similar to those experienced in the historic anatomy theater in Padua by audiences of the past. Illustrations depicted on red “windows” in Millett’s work are appropriated from De Formato Foetu, a text written by Girolamo Fabrizi d’Acquapendente (Hieronymus Fabricius), the Chair of Anatomy at the University of Padua. It was under his leadership that the anatomy theater of 1594 was built. Millett’s allusions to Catholic confessionals and kneeling benches in the installation invite the viewer to question the contradictory stance between surgeries performed for medical education and dissections completed in order to disperse sacred remains for widespread worship. Particular references to sexuality and sexual differences are also central to Millett’s investigation of historical medical practices and philosophies. The University of Padua was one of the first institutions that dissected both male and female cadavers.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1026/thumbnail.jp

Make (Other) History: Genealogy Building in the Work of Effy Beth

En el presente artículo se realizará un análisis de un corpus de obras de la artista trans Elizabeth Mía Chorubczyk (1988-2014), también conocida como «Effy Beth», considerando las relaciones que éstas articulan con la historia del arte y con las narrativas institucionalizadas de los feminismos. La obra de Effy constituye un complejo dispositivo de construcción y de acceso al pasado donde, a partir de la cita a artistas mujeres cis y feministas, principalmente europeas y estadounidenses, y de la estrategia poético-crítica de retomar temas y procedimientos artísticos trabajados por las mismas, se tensionan los límites de dichas narrativas para señalar las mecánicas de poder cisnormado que operan en los relatos de la historia del arte.In this paper we’ll analize a body of works by trans artist Elizabeth Mía Chorubczyk (1988-2014), also known as «Effy Beth», considering the relationships they articulate with art history and with institucionalized narratives of feminisms. Effy’s work constitutes a complex device of construction and accesss to the past where,starting from references to feminist cis women artists, mainly american and european, and the poetic-critical strategy of retaking themes and artistic procedures worked by them, the limits of these narratives are stressed, pointing out cisnormative power mechanics that operate regulating and administrating the art history narrations.Facultad de Bellas Arte