Intertexts

Review of The Philosophy of Film Noir 1 8 3 the problems faced in classic noirs are not of the appropriate level of impor¬ tance to lead to catharsis, he explains. Most of the characters are not of suffi¬ cient moral uprightness to be viewed as tragic heroes. And, perhaps most importantly, noir’s focus on narrative and “spectacle” instead of on dramatic tension ultimately makes the stretch too great. Noir is not tragedy, at least on Jarvie’s take. The Foreword, which explains Robert Porfirio’s surprise at the appear¬ ance of such abook nearly thirty years subsequent to an essay he wrote in the infancy of noir scholarship, titled No Way Out: Existential Motifs in the Film Noir, also briefly sketches the history of film noir. Along with Conrad’s Introduction and asix-page Index, which this reviewer found to be helpful and clear, the volume includes alist of the credentials of the contributors. If there is one complaint from this reviewer about the collection of essays, it is that the goal, to synthesize noir and philosophy in at once arigorous and a propaedeuticmanner,althoughlofty,isafundamentallycontradictoryone. Some introductory material seems somewhat rushed, some philosophical inquiries lack sufficient depth; but at the same time it should be said that these rushed passages do not constitute asignificant shortcoming of the book. The focus is noir through aphilosophical lens. And there is no doubt that the authors have collectively provided an always enjoyable, even if sometimesadumbrated,treatmentofthemoreseriousaspectsofthephilos¬ ophy of film noir. Tr a v i s J . R o d g e r s Texas Tech University Nelly Richard, The Insubordination of Signs: Political Change, Cultural Transformation, and Poetics of the Crisis and Masculine/Feminine: Practices of Difference (s), translated by Silvia R. Tandeciarz andAlice A. Nelson, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. ReadersinculturalstudieswillwelcometheEnglishtranslationoftwoworks culture in Chile byNellyRichardthatencapsulateherworkonexpressive duringandsincethePinochetdictatorship.Attheforefrontoftheopposi¬ tiontotheregime’srepressiveholdonChile,Richard’sworkisamongthe most cited on the art of resistance. This transplanted cultural critic fi-om France is recognized as an authoritative voice on Chilean visual arts and lit¬ erature. Together with her discussions of relevant theory (primarily feminist anddeconstructionistinthebooksconsideredhere),shehashelpeddefine cultural studies in the Southern Cone. Much of the published work on Chile inrecentyearshashada“post-dictatorship”focusonthecountry’stransi¬ tiontodemocracy;thetranslationsofRichard’swork,coveringthedictator¬ ship and its aftermath, offer an even deeper understanding of this significant period. TheessaysincludedinTheInsubordinationofSignswereoriginallypub- I N T E R T E X T S 1 8 4 lished between 1990 and 1994 as lectures or journal articles. Richard seeks to account for the ruptures, discontinuities, and fragmentation wrought on cultural expression during the dictatorship, what she calls semiotically “the catastrophe of meaning” (5). She traces the aesthetic movements, choices, and crises of obliterated memory and disillusions of identity. She celebrates, as well as interrogates, the fusion of art and politics and of forms and ideolo¬ gies in Chile’s literary and artistic production. The famous CADA move¬ ment (the Art Actions Collective) takes center stage in her discussion. Richard elaborates on the group’s philosophy and enumerates its bestknown actions: art that takes to the streets (pamphleteering about hunger), that spreads across the skies (poet Raul Zurita’s sky writing), that invades public space and appropriates strategies from transportation, mass media, and the military. CADA’s activity fuels Richard’s analysis that, as the transla¬ tors mention in their introduction, is “[sjituated at the intersections of liter¬ ary criticism, art history, aesthetics, philosophy, and feminist theory” (xv). Her analysis of the left in Latin America is particularly pointed, although likely to be obtuse to readers grasping this kind of interpretation about Chile for the first time (chapters 3and 4). The difficult yet necessary coordination, according to Richard, among the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts comes from the pressures of years under repression, the devastation on memory, and the desperate effort to forge new collective aesthetic and intel¬ lectual discourses. The book closes with the transcription of afascinating conversation among Richard, German Bravo (sociologist), Martin Hopenhayn (philosopher), and Adriana Valdes (literature and art critic). The four elaborate on many of the topics of Richard’s work in the book, such as the role of cultural criticism, postmodernity, and writing and...