Ventriloquism and the biographical voice - Trojans (1989) by Connie Giannaris

Claire M. Holdsworth

Ventriloquism and the biographical voice - Trojans (1989) by Connie Giannaris

Claire M. Holdsworth

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

Abstract

As a means of considering the complex ways in which we approach historical and/or literary subjects, this paper focussed on the 1989 documentary Trojans: A Life of Constantine Cavafy 1863-1933 by British/Greek filmmaker Constantine Giannaris. In narrating the life and work of the Greek-Alexandrian poet Cavafy, this short film uses English speaking voiceovers, differing types of archival sources and re-enacted staged scenes, creating evocative but unstable audio-visual representations that echo the complex historical retrospection and multi-lingual registers in Cavafy‘s poems. By exploring narrative voices as both written and sounded phenomena, the paper explored how 'counter-histories‘ are re-inscribed through archival material, which complicates historical iteration. Analysis of Trojans centred on what Steven Connor terms the 'ventriloquial voice‘ disconnected from source (2000, p.7) along with Mladen Dolar‘s notion that the voice exists in a state of 'inclusion/exclusion which retains the excluded at its core‘ (2006, p.106). Following on from these analyses, the paper considered how the voice - as an external manifestation separated from source - mirrors Cavafy‘s poems and Giannaris‘ dense audio-visual collage.

Original language	English
Publication status	Published - 9 Jul 2017
Event	Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association - Utrecht, Netherlands Duration: 6 Jul 2017 → 9 Jul 2017

Conference

Conference	Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association
Period	6/07/17 → 9/07/17

Bibliographical note

Impact: Part of the ACLA Annual Meeting 2017, the seminar 'Documentary / Sound: Voice, Listening, and the Human‘ was organised by Pooja Rangan (Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, Amherst College, USA) and Genevieve Yue (Assistant Professor of Culture and Media, Eugene Lang College, The New School, NY, USA). It aimed to expand discourses relating to the recently published book Immediations: The Humanitarian Impulse in Documentary (Duke University Press, 2017) by Rangan and a forthcoming special issue of Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture (Duke University Press, 2017), edited by Yue. Open to all delegates attending the ACLA conference, this seminar included academics from the US, Europe and New Zealand in attendance, enabling international researchers to connect and share research in a cross-disciplinary context, and that more fine art based, moving image research could be shared and extended to academics working in the fields of film/documentary studies, literature and other interdisciplinary humanities subjects.

Organising Body: American Comparative Literature Association

Keywords

Art and design

1 Conference contribution

Ventriloquism and the biographical voice - Trojans (1989) by Connie Giannaris
Holdsworth, C. M., 9 Jul 2017, Impact: Part of the ACLA Annual Meeting 2017, the seminar 'Documentary / Sound: Voice, Listening, and the Human‘ was organised by Pooja Rangan (Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, Amherst College, USA) and Genevieve Yue (Assistant Professor of Culture and Media, Eugene Lang College, The New School, NY, USA). It aimed to expand discourses relating to the recently published book Immediations: The Humanitarian Impulse in Documentary (Duke University Press, 2017) by Rangan and a forthcoming special issue of Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture (Duke University Press, 2017), edited by Yue. Open to all delegates attending the ACLA conference, this seminar included academics from the US, Europe and New Zealand in attendance, enabling international researchers to connect and share research in a cross-disciplinary context, and that more fine art based, moving image research could be shared and extended to academics working in the fields of film/documentary studies, liter.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Cite this

@conference{bf97cec15d14485cba3a026b2377cd55,

title = "Ventriloquism and the biographical voice - Trojans (1989) by Connie Giannaris",

abstract = "As a means of considering the complex ways in which we approach historical and/or literary subjects, this paper focussed on the 1989 documentary Trojans: A Life of Constantine Cavafy 1863-1933 by British/Greek filmmaker Constantine Giannaris. In narrating the life and work of the Greek-Alexandrian poet Cavafy, this short film uses English speaking voiceovers, differing types of archival sources and re-enacted staged scenes, creating evocative but unstable audio-visual representations that echo the complex historical retrospection and multi-lingual registers in Cavafy{\textquoteleft}s poems. By exploring narrative voices as both written and sounded phenomena, the paper explored how 'counter-histories{\textquoteleft} are re-inscribed through archival material, which complicates historical iteration. Analysis of Trojans centred on what Steven Connor terms the 'ventriloquial voice{\textquoteleft} disconnected from source (2000, p.7) along with Mladen Dolar{\textquoteleft}s notion that the voice exists in a state of 'inclusion/exclusion which retains the excluded at its core{\textquoteleft} (2006, p.106). Following on from these analyses, the paper considered how the voice - as an external manifestation separated from source - mirrors Cavafy{\textquoteleft}s poems and Giannaris{\textquoteleft} dense audio-visual collage.",

keywords = "Art and design",

author = "Holdsworth, \{Claire M.\}",

note = "Impact: Part of the ACLA Annual Meeting 2017, the seminar 'Documentary / Sound: Voice, Listening, and the Human{\textquoteleft} was organised by Pooja Rangan (Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, Amherst College, USA) and Genevieve Yue (Assistant Professor of Culture and Media, Eugene Lang College, The New School, NY, USA). It aimed to expand discourses relating to the recently published book Immediations: The Humanitarian Impulse in Documentary (Duke University Press, 2017) by Rangan and a forthcoming special issue of Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture (Duke University Press, 2017), edited by Yue. Open to all delegates attending the ACLA conference, this seminar included academics from the US, Europe and New Zealand in attendance, enabling international researchers to connect and share research in a cross-disciplinary context, and that more fine art based, moving image research could be shared and extended to academics working in the fields of film/documentary studies, literature and other interdisciplinary humanities subjects. Organising Body: American Comparative Literature Association; Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association ; Conference date: 06-07-2017 Through 09-07-2017",

year = "2017",

month = jul,

day = "9",

language = "English",

}

TY - CONF

T1 - Ventriloquism and the biographical voice - Trojans (1989) by Connie Giannaris

AU - Holdsworth, Claire M.

N1 - Impact: Part of the ACLA Annual Meeting 2017, the seminar 'Documentary / Sound: Voice, Listening, and the Human‘ was organised by Pooja Rangan (Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, Amherst College, USA) and Genevieve Yue (Assistant Professor of Culture and Media, Eugene Lang College, The New School, NY, USA). It aimed to expand discourses relating to the recently published book Immediations: The Humanitarian Impulse in Documentary (Duke University Press, 2017) by Rangan and a forthcoming special issue of Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture (Duke University Press, 2017), edited by Yue. Open to all delegates attending the ACLA conference, this seminar included academics from the US, Europe and New Zealand in attendance, enabling international researchers to connect and share research in a cross-disciplinary context, and that more fine art based, moving image research could be shared and extended to academics working in the fields of film/documentary studies, literature and other interdisciplinary humanities subjects. Organising Body: American Comparative Literature Association

PY - 2017/7/9

Y1 - 2017/7/9

N2 - As a means of considering the complex ways in which we approach historical and/or literary subjects, this paper focussed on the 1989 documentary Trojans: A Life of Constantine Cavafy 1863-1933 by British/Greek filmmaker Constantine Giannaris. In narrating the life and work of the Greek-Alexandrian poet Cavafy, this short film uses English speaking voiceovers, differing types of archival sources and re-enacted staged scenes, creating evocative but unstable audio-visual representations that echo the complex historical retrospection and multi-lingual registers in Cavafy‘s poems. By exploring narrative voices as both written and sounded phenomena, the paper explored how 'counter-histories‘ are re-inscribed through archival material, which complicates historical iteration. Analysis of Trojans centred on what Steven Connor terms the 'ventriloquial voice‘ disconnected from source (2000, p.7) along with Mladen Dolar‘s notion that the voice exists in a state of 'inclusion/exclusion which retains the excluded at its core‘ (2006, p.106). Following on from these analyses, the paper considered how the voice - as an external manifestation separated from source - mirrors Cavafy‘s poems and Giannaris‘ dense audio-visual collage.

AB - As a means of considering the complex ways in which we approach historical and/or literary subjects, this paper focussed on the 1989 documentary Trojans: A Life of Constantine Cavafy 1863-1933 by British/Greek filmmaker Constantine Giannaris. In narrating the life and work of the Greek-Alexandrian poet Cavafy, this short film uses English speaking voiceovers, differing types of archival sources and re-enacted staged scenes, creating evocative but unstable audio-visual representations that echo the complex historical retrospection and multi-lingual registers in Cavafy‘s poems. By exploring narrative voices as both written and sounded phenomena, the paper explored how 'counter-histories‘ are re-inscribed through archival material, which complicates historical iteration. Analysis of Trojans centred on what Steven Connor terms the 'ventriloquial voice‘ disconnected from source (2000, p.7) along with Mladen Dolar‘s notion that the voice exists in a state of 'inclusion/exclusion which retains the excluded at its core‘ (2006, p.106). Following on from these analyses, the paper considered how the voice - as an external manifestation separated from source - mirrors Cavafy‘s poems and Giannaris‘ dense audio-visual collage.

KW - Art and design

M3 - Paper

T2 - Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association

Y2 - 6 July 2017 through 9 July 2017

ER -

Ventriloquism and the biographical voice - Trojans (1989) by Connie Giannaris

Abstract

Conference

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Fingerprint

Research output

Ventriloquism and the biographical voice - Trojans (1989) by Connie Giannaris

Cite this