‘I wouldn’t trust no words written down on no piece of paper’: Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, Jacques Derrida and the critique of logocentrism

In this article, I propose a reading of Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man (1995) in light of Jacques Derrida’s observations on the axiological binary opposition of speech and writing. I argue that the relationship between the two is artistically explored in the opening scene where the accountant William Blake (Johnny Depp) meets the fireman (Crispin Glover) on the train to the town of Machine. I interpret Depp’s protagonist as the representative of writing and Glover’s fireman as the representative of speech. Demonstrating how the attributes that, through the long history of Western metaphysics, have been ascribed to writing are manifested by the main character of the film, I analyse a subtle personification of the written word on screen. I contend that Dead Man is a deconstructive text not only because it deconstructs the genre of the Western and the narrative of the West but also in the sense that it offers a critique of logocentrism and Western metaphysics

Editorial: Dialogue and communication in film

This editorial for a special themed issue of JOMEC Journal gives an overview of the issue contents and introduces the articles, written by Kyle Barrowman, Paul Bowman, Paolo Braga, Evelina Kazakeviciute, Naz Önen and David Sorfa. The issue presents new research and developments relating to the relatively underrepresented areas of dialogue and communication in film. Half of the texts discussed here are language-centred readings of films focused on dialogue; the other half pay particular attention to the representation of different levels of communication, such as speech and writing or intra-communication on screen. It also touches upon broader topics, such as film as a means of communication between the director and the audience. The authors approach their objects of analysis from a variety of perspectives – from ordinary language philosophy to deconstruction. The findings of their studies have both theoretical and practical value: among other discoveries, the authors came up with new critical tools for the analysis of dialogue and communication in film and valuable ideas on how film dialogue can contribute to the movie dramaturgically. Therefore, the research published in this issue might be relevant and of use to dialogue and communication scholars, screenwriters, and filmmakers

‘It’s a sad and beautiful world’: the Poststructuralist conception of communication and Jim Jarmusch’s films

The thesis describes the main elements of communication from a poststructuralist vantage point and explores the implications for the theories of interpersonal, interlingual and intercultural as well as mediated communication. It also examines the theme of otherness and communication with a stranger in the poststructuralist literature. The research extends the prior work on the relationship between communication theory and poststructuralism. I argue that poststructuralists’ contribution to communication theory has been underappreciated by some scholars in the field due to either ascription of the poststructuralist authors to different communication traditions or due to misinterpretations of their works. Showing that Jacques Derrida’s works are at the heart of poststructuralism, I dispel the main misinterpretations of deconstruction, including the misjudgement of the Derridean take on objectivity, intentionality, and meaning, to name a few. I reconstruct his and Roland Barthes’ as well as Julia Kristeva’s insights on communication applying Harold Lasswell’s construct, demonstrating the underlying similarities in their ideas, and re-evaluate the poststructuralist theory of communication using five criteria appropriate for interpretative cultural theories. The results show that the theory meets all the standards of a ‘good’ theory, except the community of agreement – owing to the misinterpretations of poststructuralism that this thesis dispels. Drawing on poststructuralist ideas, I explore communication in Jarmusch’s films as well as encounters with and responses to otherness within them. The thesis looks at the main elements of communication in Jarmusch’s films from the poststructuralist perspective and especially focuses on how’s and when’s of ‘successful’ and ‘unsuccessful’ communication between the characters. The analysis leads to the conclusion, stemming from both poststructuralists’ works and Jarmusch’s films, that communication carries the trace of otherness, i.e., miscommunication, in itself and that structurally every interaction with the other is a subject to ‘failure’. Therefore, miscommunication should not be treated as a negative outcome of the process of communication. Furthermore, it should not be seen as a problem that has to be solved but rather as a paradox that needs to be managed. Perhaps, the thesis suggest, the aspiration of successful communication is related to the mentality that the dominant neo-liberal ideology ‘naturalises’ and enforces on us. This assumption might be addressed in future studies. ii

Editorial

This editorial for issue 12 of JOMEC Journal gives an overview of the journal’s content and introduces specific articles