“The centre is not the centre. The concept of a centered structure…is contradictorily coherent. And, as always, coherence in contradiction expresses the force of desire.”
The centre actually doesn’t exist, but because we have a need for it to make sense of the world around us, we perceive it to be there – however, according to Derrida, the need for and perception of a centre doesn’t necessarily mean that centre exists.
Showing posts with label Jacques Derrida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jacques Derrida. Show all posts
Monday, 14 February 2011
Jacques Derrida - Genre
Jacques Derrida said that 'a text cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be without... a genre. Every text participates in one or several genres, there is no genreless text'
(Derrida 1981, 61).
Derrida’s point explains why commentators on September 11th could only understand what they were seeing as ‘like a movie’.
Also why Kick-Ass is thought of as ‘like a superhero’. This is perhaps what Fiske means by saying ‘we make sense of it by turning it into another text.’ Steve de Souza, the director of Die Hard says that: “[T]he image of the terrorist attacks ‘looked like a movie poster, like one of my movie posters” (119). Film experts were not the only ones to resort to cinematic examples that they remembered when confronted with the events of September 11, unable or unwilling to believe their own vision of horrific events, people do not think back to imagery of the nightmare, but compare that nightmare to films they have seen.
(Derrida 1981, 61).
Derrida’s point explains why commentators on September 11th could only understand what they were seeing as ‘like a movie’.
Also why Kick-Ass is thought of as ‘like a superhero’. This is perhaps what Fiske means by saying ‘we make sense of it by turning it into another text.’ Steve de Souza, the director of Die Hard says that: “[T]he image of the terrorist attacks ‘looked like a movie poster, like one of my movie posters” (119). Film experts were not the only ones to resort to cinematic examples that they remembered when confronted with the events of September 11, unable or unwilling to believe their own vision of horrific events, people do not think back to imagery of the nightmare, but compare that nightmare to films they have seen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)