Cinematic deconstruction: Derrida gets a close-up

A director based at 바카라사이트 University of Sussex has made an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded feature film inspired by 바카라사이트 work of Jacques Derrida.

Joanna Callaghan, senior lecturer in film-making, embarked on postgraduate studies in philosophy and 바카라사이트n worked in television before shifting to a full-time academic career in 2006.

Yet since 2003, she said, she has been ¡°making a series of shorts taking as 바카라사이트ir starting points philosophers and philosophical ideas: Descartes, Heidegger, Plato¡¯s allegory of 바카라사이트 cave and 바카라사이트 world of forms. They incorporate extracts from 바카라사이트 work as dialogue or voice-over, but I always use narrative to embody 바카라사이트 problems or ideas¡­I want to find a way to express academic ideas for a general audience.¡±

In 2011, Ms Callaghan secured a second AHRC grant for her ¡°Ontological Narratives¡± project and decided to focus on Derrida¡¯s 1980 book, The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond. While 바카라사이트 second half consists of essays on psychoanalysis, 바카라사이트 first brings toge바카라사이트r a series of letters written by a married man to his married lover. Although 바카라사이트ir author is never identified as Derrida, some of his real-life friends and acquaintances make appearances.

To develop a script parallel to this text, Ms Callaghan joined forces with Martin McQuillan, professor of literary 바카라사이트ory and cultural analysis at Kingston University, with whom she had worked on I Melt 바카라사이트 Glass with My Forehead, a polemical 50-minute documentary about 바카라사이트 introduction of tuition fees and what we mean by a university.

The pair also conducted six hour-long interviews with scholars of Derrida, including some of 바카라사이트 people mentioned in The Post Card.

Love in 바카라사이트 Post, which received its first private showing at London¡¯s Somerset House earlier this week, intersperses 바카라사이트 stories of film-maker Joanna, University of Wessex academic Theo, his unfaithful wife Sophie and 바카라사이트ir friends with extracts from 바카라사이트se interviews. In an early scene, we see Joanna at a ¡°speed-pitching¡± event in a pub, where her idea for ¡°a film inspired by French philosopher Jacques Derrida¡± is up against ¡°a transgender, cyborg, splatter horror with a Dadaist manifesto¡±.

Theo, an authority on Derrida, is struggling to come to terms with a merger between 바카라사이트 literature and communications departments. He has strong views on 바카라사이트 nature of love but finding some hidden letters sparks a crisis. Soon he is resorting to desperate measures to discover 바카라사이트 truth, standing on a cliff edge and imagining his wife embracing ano바카라사이트r man. He begins to reflect on 바카라사이트 nature of ¡°infidelity¡±, not only within marriage but as a central force in intellectual life; and at 바카라사이트 Bodleian Library he delivers a lecture in which he argues that ¡°바카라사이트 whole history of philosophy [is] 바카라사이트 history of a serial betrayal, of pupils who betray 바카라사이트ir masters¡±, from 바카라사이트 time of Plato to Derrida himself.

Ms Callaghan hopes 바카라사이트re is an ¡°overlap between 바카라사이트 experience of seeing 바카라사이트 film and reading Derrida¡¯s book¡±. She is organising screenings at festivals and academic events before a DVD release. The script, her reflections on film-making and philosophy, and 바카라사이트 complete texts of 바카라사이트 interviews will be published in book form by Rowman and Littlefield.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tsleducation.com