Conference Description
Expanded Quotation: Inter-medial Intertextuality in Contemporary Literature, Art, Performance and Film
Considering the current diminishment of academic interest in many of the poststructuralist theoretical discussions of the late 20th century, one might argue that the concepts and tendencies grouped under the term “intertextuality” have long since lost their cache. Commonly associated with postmodern writing, intertextuality—in no small part owing to its name—is often viewed as a purely literary phenomenon. And as theory it is frequently considered limited to the investigation of textual genealogies and the production of new from existent textual material. In an attempt to broaden this theory of literary recycling into a more general conception of artistic circulation and exchange, our conference will provide the opportunity to read and discuss artistic inter-relations in a context that does not privilege the strictly textual.
Like literary quotation and citation, appropriation and the reuse of found materials have been common practices within the respective domains of art, film, music and performance since the beginning of the 20th century. But can one speak of a found footage film as “citing” the celluloid material it appropriates and manipulates? And when one performer “quotes” another, how do we account for the performative surplus a gesture or utterance inevitably generates? What are the theoretical implications of these two terms, and what might be their practical consequences? Ultimately, we believe that, by placing theories of literary intertextuality side by side with investigations of multi- and inter-medial appropriation, we will be able to gain more specific and nuanced insight into these divergent yet similar artistic processes.
The conference will investigate the question as to whether the act of citing is indeed medium-specific, and whether quotation functions in an analogous manner within the image, in film, or in the theater. Our material will largely be restricted to work produced since 1990, though we will also necessarily consider historical practices of inter-medial quotation and citation. It is our contention that, though it is inextricably bound up with and informed by previous methods, “intertextual” film, theatrical, artistic and literary work after 1989 must be treated on its own terms. Indeed, in an epoch when repetition and recycling has become so ubiquitous, is it even licit to separate the “open” intertextual work from the presumably “closed” aesthetic object? Is intertextuality still a postmodern phenomenon, or has it, perhaps unwittingly, experienced a return to modernism? Or perhaps its ubiquity challenges these two art-historical designations? In addressing these queries, we will turn to contemporary works by predominantly German-language authors, filmmakers, performing and visual artists that forefront citation and appropriation while exploring the theoretical and practical implications of their employment of the multimedia quote.
By bringing together both professors and graduate students from various disciplines, the conference will generate a productive, interdisciplinary exchange as a collective act of reciprocal reading. Indeed, the theme itself explicitly calls for such a dialogical format. Seeing as the focus of our interest lies in the expansion of quotation towards other media and a transgression of the purely textual, a conference—with the performative surplus it generates, but also its employment of various media—promises to be the ideal format to discuss these issues. By a comparative analysis of the function, role and quality of the quote in various disciplines and forms we hope to reach a better understanding of the media-specificity and inter-medial value of intertextual thought—as a theory of interdisciplinary exchange and circulation.
Considering the current diminishment of academic interest in many of the poststructuralist theoretical discussions of the late 20th century, one might argue that the concepts and tendencies grouped under the term “intertextuality” have long since lost their cache. Commonly associated with postmodern writing, intertextuality—in no small part owing to its name—is often viewed as a purely literary phenomenon. And as theory it is frequently considered limited to the investigation of textual genealogies and the production of new from existent textual material. In an attempt to broaden this theory of literary recycling into a more general conception of artistic circulation and exchange, our conference will provide the opportunity to read and discuss artistic inter-relations in a context that does not privilege the strictly textual.
Like literary quotation and citation, appropriation and the reuse of found materials have been common practices within the respective domains of art, film, music and performance since the beginning of the 20th century. But can one speak of a found footage film as “citing” the celluloid material it appropriates and manipulates? And when one performer “quotes” another, how do we account for the performative surplus a gesture or utterance inevitably generates? What are the theoretical implications of these two terms, and what might be their practical consequences? Ultimately, we believe that, by placing theories of literary intertextuality side by side with investigations of multi- and inter-medial appropriation, we will be able to gain more specific and nuanced insight into these divergent yet similar artistic processes.
The conference will investigate the question as to whether the act of citing is indeed medium-specific, and whether quotation functions in an analogous manner within the image, in film, or in the theater. Our material will largely be restricted to work produced since 1990, though we will also necessarily consider historical practices of inter-medial quotation and citation. It is our contention that, though it is inextricably bound up with and informed by previous methods, “intertextual” film, theatrical, artistic and literary work after 1989 must be treated on its own terms. Indeed, in an epoch when repetition and recycling has become so ubiquitous, is it even licit to separate the “open” intertextual work from the presumably “closed” aesthetic object? Is intertextuality still a postmodern phenomenon, or has it, perhaps unwittingly, experienced a return to modernism? Or perhaps its ubiquity challenges these two art-historical designations? In addressing these queries, we will turn to contemporary works by predominantly German-language authors, filmmakers, performing and visual artists that forefront citation and appropriation while exploring the theoretical and practical implications of their employment of the multimedia quote.
By bringing together both professors and graduate students from various disciplines, the conference will generate a productive, interdisciplinary exchange as a collective act of reciprocal reading. Indeed, the theme itself explicitly calls for such a dialogical format. Seeing as the focus of our interest lies in the expansion of quotation towards other media and a transgression of the purely textual, a conference—with the performative surplus it generates, but also its employment of various media—promises to be the ideal format to discuss these issues. By a comparative analysis of the function, role and quality of the quote in various disciplines and forms we hope to reach a better understanding of the media-specificity and inter-medial value of intertextual thought—as a theory of interdisciplinary exchange and circulation.