Melancholy constellations: Benjamin, Kiefer, Kentridge and the play of mourning
Intended as a summation as well as a continuation of several studies on the work of Walter Benjamin, Anselm Kiefer, and William Kentridge, this article proposes to configure Benjamin, Kiefer, and Kentridge in and as a melancholy constellation. "Melancholy constellation" serves here as a t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of the Free State
2007-08-01
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| Series: | Acta Academica |
| Online Access: | https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/aa/article/view/1139 |
| Summary: | Intended as a summation as well as a continuation of several studies on the work of Walter Benjamin, Anselm Kiefer, and William Kentridge, this article proposes to configure Benjamin, Kiefer, and Kentridge in and as a melancholy constellation. "Melancholy constellation" serves here as a theoretical construct of the mobile concepts with which Benjamin, Kiefer, and Kentridge "preposterously" think and perform the imaging of history. On the basis of these mobile concepts, I shall also refer to my theoretical concept of melancholy constellation as a mobile constellation. Furthermore, while melancholia traditionally signifies a state of acedia or immobility, its historical image will be shown to be dialectical -signifying both black bile and inspiration; always involving mobile positions. The dialectics of melancholia will be related to the dialectics of melancholy writing, which in turn is enfolded with my discussion of the performative self-reflexivity at play in the work of Benjamin, Kiefer, and Kentridge.
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| ISSN: | 0587-2405 2415-0479 |