Really thoughtful and careful argumentation here. It’s not my field, so I don’t have any useful suggestions in terms of refining the argument, but I do have two comments that I hope might give you additional fodder in your thinking. First, I’d be interested to see how you feel about Alison Landsberg’s consideration of what she calls “prosthetic memory,” particularly as it appears in historical media, including the period piece. My peers more interested in cognitive psychology and phenomenology have quibbled with how Landsberg conceives of memory, empathy, and sympathy to some extent, but I haven’t read enough of it to give a solid take. My second comment is that I think a number of the arguments developed here, especially regarding form production, may have some applicability for postwar art cinema and, in particular, its formalist extremes in what David Bordwell has called “parametric narration” or what Kristin Thompson has called “parametric form.” I’m thinking particularly of Marguerite Duras’s films (I’m aware that you’re a fan) as well as Chantal Akerman’s. Akerman’s preoccupation with Holocaust trauma and the enduring weariness, laziness, fatigue, and exhaustion of the figures in her films seems related to Woolf’s illness. I think Elena Gorfinkel’s “Weariness, Waiting: Enduration and Art Cinema’s Tired Bodies” may be of some use if you have any interest in considering any of these ideas in the context of cinema.
Contemporary literary criticism is far outside my current scholarly orbit, so I apologize if those recs are specious. I just wanted to say that I think this is really lovely stuff and I wanted to offer up the associations that came up for me in response to the kind of readership you imagine here.
Thank you for reading, and for your thoughtful response and kind words! I'm not familiar with Landsberg's work, but both of your points are very well taken, and your recommendations are helpful.
Really thoughtful and careful argumentation here. It’s not my field, so I don’t have any useful suggestions in terms of refining the argument, but I do have two comments that I hope might give you additional fodder in your thinking. First, I’d be interested to see how you feel about Alison Landsberg’s consideration of what she calls “prosthetic memory,” particularly as it appears in historical media, including the period piece. My peers more interested in cognitive psychology and phenomenology have quibbled with how Landsberg conceives of memory, empathy, and sympathy to some extent, but I haven’t read enough of it to give a solid take. My second comment is that I think a number of the arguments developed here, especially regarding form production, may have some applicability for postwar art cinema and, in particular, its formalist extremes in what David Bordwell has called “parametric narration” or what Kristin Thompson has called “parametric form.” I’m thinking particularly of Marguerite Duras’s films (I’m aware that you’re a fan) as well as Chantal Akerman’s. Akerman’s preoccupation with Holocaust trauma and the enduring weariness, laziness, fatigue, and exhaustion of the figures in her films seems related to Woolf’s illness. I think Elena Gorfinkel’s “Weariness, Waiting: Enduration and Art Cinema’s Tired Bodies” may be of some use if you have any interest in considering any of these ideas in the context of cinema.
Contemporary literary criticism is far outside my current scholarly orbit, so I apologize if those recs are specious. I just wanted to say that I think this is really lovely stuff and I wanted to offer up the associations that came up for me in response to the kind of readership you imagine here.
Thank you for reading, and for your thoughtful response and kind words! I'm not familiar with Landsberg's work, but both of your points are very well taken, and your recommendations are helpful.