Intermediality and film consciousness in Gao Xingjian’s 'La Silhouette sinon l’ombre'

Rosalind Silvester

doi:10.1093/fmls/cqy068

Intermediality and film consciousness in Gao Xingjian’s 'La Silhouette sinon l’ombre'

Rosalind Silvester

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Abstract

This article employs Merleau-Pontian phenomenology to deconstruct the mind-body unity in Gao Xingjian’s film, 'La Silhouette sinon l’ombre' (2003), which shows the protagonist’s sensory and bodily encounters with the physical world through a stream-of-consciousness technique. Applying this philosophy allows us to make sense of the apparently unconnected, disparate scenes and understand the relationship between inner and outer worlds by considering the role of subjective positionality. It explains how Gao brings the body to the screen as both perceiving object and subject of perception through an emphasis on sight and touch, and interprets the creative act as the synthesis of activity and interaction. 'La Silhouette' is an important contribution to contemporary francophone films exploring the relationship between artist, viewer and artwork due, firstly, to Gao’s tripartite aesthetics, dependent on the full integration of the senses, and secondly to the unique expression of the artist’s world via the intramedial, suggesting the coexistence of several consciousnesses.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	53-74
Journal	Forum for Modern Language Studies
Volume	55
Issue number	1
Early online date	10 Jan 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqy068
Publication status	Published - 10 Jan 2019

Bibliographical note

Although I received an email from the journal's editor stating that my revisions have been accepted, no official date of acceptance has yet been provided since my article is currently in the 'first look' queue. When final edits have been made, the link to the licencing agreement is sent to authors and at that point an official date of acceptance is provided.

Keywords

Gao Xingjian, francophone Chinese, film, phenomenology, consciousness, Merleau-Ponty, intramediality

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10.1093/fmls/cqy068

Intermediality and film consciousness in Gao Xingjian’s 'La Silhouette sinon l’ombre'
© 2019 The Author. Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.
Accepted author manuscript, 184 KBLicence: Unspecified

Rosalind Silvester
- r.silvesterqub.acuk
- School of Arts, English and Languages - Senior Lecturer
- Modern Languages
Person: Academic

Cite this

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abstract = "This article employs Merleau-Pontian phenomenology to deconstruct the mind-body unity in Gao Xingjian{\textquoteright}s film, 'La Silhouette sinon l{\textquoteright}ombre' (2003), which shows the protagonist{\textquoteright}s sensory and bodily encounters with the physical world through a stream-of-consciousness technique. Applying this philosophy allows us to make sense of the apparently unconnected, disparate scenes and understand the relationship between inner and outer worlds by considering the role of subjective positionality. It explains how Gao brings the body to the screen as both perceiving object and subject of perception through an emphasis on sight and touch, and interprets the creative act as the synthesis of activity and interaction. 'La Silhouette' is an important contribution to contemporary francophone films exploring the relationship between artist, viewer and artwork due, firstly, to Gao{\textquoteright}s tripartite aesthetics, dependent on the full integration of the senses, and secondly to the unique expression of the artist{\textquoteright}s world via the intramedial, suggesting the coexistence of several consciousnesses. ",

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Intermediality and film consciousness in Gao Xingjian’s 'La Silhouette sinon l’ombre'

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Rosalind Silvester

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