10th SAAS CONFERENCE

“The Backyard of the U.S. Mansion: Critical readings of poverty and wealth in the United States”

Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).  April 14-16, 2011

 

17) Of Majors and Minors: The Rich and Poor Languages of American Cinema

Panel Chair: Boris Vejdovsky
Institution: University of Lausanne, Switzerland
E-mail: boris.vejdovsky@unil.ch

American cinema dominated by Hollywood production has arguably become the major expression of America today. Hollywood is the nation’s second export industry and it generates an income that can only be estimated in astronomical figures. Money has always been not only the necessary condition of the film industry, but also part of its fascination. Thus, after producing Titanic, the most expensive movie of all times, James Cameron broke his own record in 2010 with Avatar which may have cost as much a half-a-billion dollars. The major language of contemporary America seems to be, then, a rich language. It is a language that not only uses all the major aspects of America (its political and financial system) but that also expresses itself with all the major themes and—to use a musical metaphor—in the major chords of the nation. Another way of expressing this would be to say that the major or rich language of Hollywood constantly reaffirms and reestablishes the ideological, political and aesthetic borders of America.

In their 1975 essay on Kafka, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari proposed that “minor literature” (une littérature mineure) was not so much literature written in a minor language, but rather literature written by a minority of people within the major language. They further propose that minor languages and literatures deterritorialize major languages and literatures.

Without necessarily following Deleuze and Guattari’s terminology or conceptualization, this panel invites contributions that will examine whether there is something akin to “minor literature” in American cinema. Is it possible to express oneself in a minor tone, or is it possible to speak in a poor language within the rich fluency of Hollywood? Contributors are invited to speak on strategies of deterritorialization of American mainstream discourse and to expose possible strategies of resistance and counter-discourse. Examples could come from alternative cinema and from contestation voiced by radical directors or actors, but also from mainstream cinema to see whether there may be something in American cinema that does not love the borders of established discourse and that manages to speak in a poor or minor language within the language of riches.

Topics include but are not limited to the expression and representation in cinema of:

- American aesthetics: its establishing and its contestation

- Politics: conservatism, liberalism, radicalism

- Systems of values: monetary and moral

- Gender and sexual encoding of major and minor discourse

- Technology and control

- Definition of reality and rites of assent

 

 

10th INTERNATIONAL SAAS CONFERENCE
Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 14-16 April 2011

THE BACKYARD OF THE U.S.A. MANSION: Critical Readings of Poverty and Wealth in the United States

Name:

Academic Affiliation:

E-mail:

Title of Proposal:

Panel:

Special requirements, if any:

Abstract (400-600 words):

Please, complete this form and send it, in electronic format (via e-mail), to the Chair of your selected panel. Deadline for sending proposals is October 29, 2010.