“Celle qui avance”: On Becoming Still in the Act, Reading and Rereading of “Gradiva”, Not Only by Alain Robbe-Grillet

Maciej Stasiowski

kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University (Poland)

Abstract

A revision of a classic through the prism of Gradiva – a character from the novel by Wilhelm Jensen, which was annexed by Freud and the surrealists, and whose transitive status was emphasised by Alain Robbe-Grillet – may seem willful. This is a false muse; a construction of an archaeological imagination. It was introduced into the canon of twentieth-century art (literature, painting, film) by interpreters who turned her into an interconnecting theme. The character of Gradiva leads one to reflection on the process of looking “anew” on texts of the past, and rethinking the intention of bringing back, correcting and refreshing old films, which is not only a motif of films by Raymonde Caresco, Robbe-Grillet and Leos Carax, but an illustration of the transgression of meaning between the works of literature, fine arts, and film. The figure of Gradiva has an impact on each of these forms of art, but adapts to different mediums in a different manner. Following the traces of this theme, Stasiowski reveals the mechanisms which lead contemporary transformations of classic texts, which applies to their common perception, interpretation but also to the prototype.


Keywords:

Alain Robbe-Grillet, Raymonde Caresco, Leos Carax

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Published
2015-06-30

Cited by

Stasiowski, M. (2015) ““Celle qui avance”: On Becoming Still in the Act, Reading and Rereading of ‘Gradiva’, Not Only by Alain Robbe-Grillet”, Kwartalnik Filmowy, (89-90), pp. 82–101. doi: 10.36744/kf.2327.

Authors

Maciej Stasiowski 
kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland

Doktorant w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Przygotowuje rozprawę na temat dynamicznych metod reprezentacji wizualnej (w tym filmu) w eksperymentalnych projektach architektonicz­nych. Publikuje w „Ekranach” oraz „Archu”. Autor książki Atlas rzeczy niestałych. Strategie, struktury i chwyty literackich metafikcji w twór­czości Petera Greenawaya (2014).



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