Oxi the Screenplay Amp Commentarcb: The Screenplay and Commentary, Including interviews with Derrida, Cixous, Balibar and Negri - Hardcover

Ken McMullen; Martin McQuillan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1783482680 ISBN 13: 9781783482689

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2015

Synopsis

Oxi (Gr. Determiner, lit. 'No', fig. 'Resistance', pronounced 'ochi') retells Sophocles' Antigone through the contemporary Greek crisis and modern European philosophy. A collaboration between the renowned British auteur Ken McMullen and the literary theorist Martin McQuillan, the film draws upon and responds to the importance of the Antigone of modern thought (Hegel, Arendt, Lacan, Derrida, Butler), while coming up close to the politics of the street and the malign effects of the austerity experiment in Greece today. The screenplay weaves together a range of, including performance, fiction, documentary, interview and literary collage. The result is an intensely moving reflection on the tragedy of austerity today, with contributions from Helene Cixous, Etienne Balibar and Antonio Negri, as well as several significant figures in Greek cultural life. The volume includes full transcripts of the interviews with Cixous, Balibar and Negri, and a previously unpublished interview with Jacques Derrida on the question of Oedipus, as well as critical commentary from the filmmakers.

About this title

About the Author

Martin McQuillan is Professor of Literary Theory and Cultural Analysis and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Kingston University, UK, where he is also Co-Director of The London Graduate School. He is a literary theorist, cultural critic and author and editor of many books and essays including Roland Barthes (or the profession of cultural studies), Deconstruction After 9/11 and Deconstruction Reading Politics. Ken McMullen is one of Britain's leading auteurs. His films include Partition, Zina and Ghost Dance. His work has represented the UK at Cannes, won the gold medal at the New York Film Festival, the special jury prizes at Chateau Thierry and San Sebastian, and Best Film at the Rotterdam Film Festival. He is currently Distinguished Anniversary Chair of Film at Kingston University.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

OXI: An Act of Resistance

The Screenplay and Commentary

By Ken McMullen, Martin McQuillan

Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd.

Copyright © 2015 Ken McMullen and Martin McQuillan
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78348-268-9

Contents

Contents, 
Acknowledgements, 
Preface, 
The State of the Debt, 
OXI: An Act of Resistance, 
OXI Screenplay, 
Credits, 
Memories, Dreams, Ghosts and Friends, 
Spartan Helotry, 
Post-Structuralist Politics, 
False Economy, 
The Godfather, 
Interviews, 
Interview I: Étienne Balibar, 
Interview II: Hélène Cixous, 
Interview III: Antonio Negri, 
Interview IV: Manolis Glezos, 
Interview V: Theodoros Terzopoulos, 
Interview VI: Kostas Vaxevanis, 
Whatever Still Remains, 
Filmography, 
Notes on Contributors, 

CHAPTER 1

The State of the Debt

Martin McQuillan

When we first set out to make a film about the crisis in Greece, the idea of a radical government in the form of the Syriza election victory of 2015 was still a distant prospect. It was not until the film had been completed and screened at the Moscow International Film Festival and the London Film Festival that the administration of Alexis Tsipras was formed. The worldwide phenomenon of the Syriza government and its subsequent encounter with the so-called Troika of Greece's creditors (the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission) has now given the film and this book a certain currency, but it was never part of our original motivation. Rather, the film is about the debts that global culture owes Greece and what we might learn about the nature of money from Greece yesterday and today. Philosophy ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), economy ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) and cinema ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) are all part of that same Hellenic inheritance.

The situation in Greece is at once unique to that country and of the greatest significance to what we now call the 'global economy'. On the one hand, the Greek crisis is a symptom of a wider global conjunction that began with the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States (which has its origins in the Clinton years) and runs to the threat to the continuation of the Euro currency zone today. On the other hand, it is a singular concentration of all of the questions that arise from that conjunction, demonstrating in a precise way the failings and challenges of our present world system of capital. It is also, as every economic crisis is, a story of intense personal difficulty for individuals and families. As Émile Durkheim observed in his seminal sociological work, rates of suicide always grow during times of economic downturn. The only growth that Greece has seen in the last few years is that of rates of self-harm, mental health issues and mortality among the population. The Greek economic crisis is also a humanitarian crisis and not just because of the cuts to health services in Greece as a result of the regime of austerity. Austerity has human consequences and this is what makes it the proper subject of film and literature alongside economics. Perhaps, film and literature is better placed than economics to highlight the effects of austerity. Economists are, in the words of the Medea of Euripides, 'novices in grief'. It takes an artist to capture the wounds of a society, and as W. H. Auden put it, 'about suffering they were never wrong, the old masters'.

* * *

In 2000, Greece was accepted as the twelfth member of the European monetary union. The coun

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1783482680
• ISBN 13: 9781783482689
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280