The essay reflects on the spatial deployment of mythical thinking, connecting it to the different modes of intertwining between narration and landscape in cinema. Main theoretical frame is Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms. Also crucial are the reflection on myth and space by such thinkers as James Hillman, Carl Schmitt, Henri Lefebvre. The second half of the paper focuses on the analysis of a recent war film, Jarhead (Sam Mendes, 2005), in order to show its strategies of mythopoetic deconstruction. The film, set during the First Iraq War but released after the start of the Second, proposes a significant revision of the postmodern imagination through which the 1991 conflict has often been interpreted. The space of the desert has a strong mythical potential, and the investigation of its narrativization in a postclassical film like Jarhead opens up the discourse towards a metalinguistic reflection about the cinematic medium’s relationship with referential reality, corporeality and forms of embodiment.
Il saggio riflette sulle implicazioni spaziali del pensiero mitico, ponendole in relazione con le diverse modalità con cui il dispositivo cinematografico gestisce il rapporto tra narrazione e paesaggio. Il riferimento teorico principale è alla filosofia delle forme simboliche elaborata da Ernst Cassirer, ma anche alle riflessioni sul mito e lo spazio di pensatori quali James Hillman, Carl Schmitt, Henri Lefebvre. Nella seconda parte, l’intervento analizza un film di guerra statunitense relativamente recente, Jarhead (Sam Mendes, 2005), per mostrarne i meccanismi di decostruzione mitopoietica. Il film, ambientato durante la Prima Guerra in Iraq ma uscito durante la Seconda, propone una significativa revisione dell’immaginario postmoderno con cui quel conflitto è stato spesso interpretato. Lo spazio del deserto ha un alto potenziale mitico, e l’analisi della messa in scena che ne propone il film apre il discorso verso considerazioni di natura metalinguistica a proposito del rapporto tra medium cinematografico, realtà referenziale e corporeità.
Marmo, L. (2019). Il deserto sanguina. Decostruzione dello spazio mitico in Jarhead. In Pravadelli V (a cura di), Forme del mito e cinema americano (pp. 141-161). Roma - ITA.
Il deserto sanguina. Decostruzione dello spazio mitico in Jarhead
Marmo L
2019-01-01
Abstract
The essay reflects on the spatial deployment of mythical thinking, connecting it to the different modes of intertwining between narration and landscape in cinema. Main theoretical frame is Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms. Also crucial are the reflection on myth and space by such thinkers as James Hillman, Carl Schmitt, Henri Lefebvre. The second half of the paper focuses on the analysis of a recent war film, Jarhead (Sam Mendes, 2005), in order to show its strategies of mythopoetic deconstruction. The film, set during the First Iraq War but released after the start of the Second, proposes a significant revision of the postmodern imagination through which the 1991 conflict has often been interpreted. The space of the desert has a strong mythical potential, and the investigation of its narrativization in a postclassical film like Jarhead opens up the discourse towards a metalinguistic reflection about the cinematic medium’s relationship with referential reality, corporeality and forms of embodiment.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.