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Catastrophic Spectacle
- The wood-engraving with the caption “The first sight of Paris”, published in Cassell’s History of the War between France and Germany 1870–1871 (1873), does not depict a spectacular catastrophe. As its title already indicates, it rather illustrates a constellation of sight. What there is to see is not so much a spectacular vista but the fact that one sees – and the way how this works. I would therefore like to use the wood-engraving to analyse the basic setting that is formative for every constellation of ‘spectacle’. This prepares for the second step, which brings in the notion of catastrophe: I will argue that the spectacle of catastrophe which has gained prominence especially in the nineteenth century is not merely a phenomenon of representing catastrophe, but involves the constellation of spectacle as such. Spectacular catastrophes perform and derive their force from a catastrophe of spectacle – this is what the following will elaborate on.
Author details: | Johannes UngelenkORCiDGND |
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ISBN: | 978-3-95808-173-4 |
Title of parent work (English): | Catastrophe & Spectacle: Variations of a Conceptual Relation from the 17th to the 21st Century |
Subtitle (English): | The Debacle of the Sublime in Émile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart |
Publisher: | Neofelis |
Place of publishing: | Berlin |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2018 |
Publication year: | 2018 |
Release date: | 2020/10/08 |
Tag: | Blumenberg; Zola; absence of distance; shipwreck |
First page: | 92 |
Last Page: | 101 |
Organizational units: | Philosophische Fakultät / Institut für Künste und Medien |
DDC classification: | 8 Literatur / 84 Französische und verwandte Literaturen / 840 Literaturen romanischer Sprachen; Französische Literatur |
Peer review: | Referiert |