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<h1><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Sydney Seminar for the Arts and Philosophy 20:
<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Melancholia Non Grata: Lars von Trier and the Infinite Sadness<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p>Friday, September 28, 2012, 5:00–9:30 pm<br>
Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, Level 1, 280 Pitt Street.<br>
Cost: Admission Free<br>
Please RSVP to: <a href="mailto:philosophy@uws.edu.au">philosophy@uws.edu.au</a> by tomorrow, Sept 21<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><a href="http://sydneyseminar.org">http://sydneyseminar.org</a> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">Lars von Trier’s most recent film </span></strong><em><b><span style="color:black">Melancholia</span></b></em><strong><span style="color:black"> (2011) has provoked no end of debate: simultaneously hailed as a ‘masterpiece’
and ‘tiresome’, von Trier himself half-dismissed the work as ‘too polished’ and ‘a woman’s film’ at its premiere at Cannes (where he was infamously declared ‘persona non grata’ after noting that he had come to ‘understand Hitler’). This seminar seeks to cut
through the controversy in order address some of its major themes and contexts.</span></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Drawing from Jacques Derrida’s contention that the death of the other spawns a melancholia that amounts to the annihilation of the entire world, Christopher Peterson’s
<strong><span style="color:black">“The ‘Magic Cave’ of Allegory”</span></strong> argues that von Trier’s film visually stages a planetary clash whose literality is never fully dissociable from, yet never entirely collapsible onto, the allegorical content of
Justine’s psychological depression.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>In <strong><span style="color:black">“Between Saturation and Exhaustion: Lars von Trier and the Melancholy Death of Cinema”</span></strong>, Alex Ling argues that <em>Melancholia </em>– and von Trier’s cinema more broadly – offers a profound meditation on
the current state of cinema as simultaneously saturated and exhausted. Taking as given cinema’s imminent demise, the film asks the question: did cinema live up to its potential?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="color:black">Robert Sinnerbrink</span>‘s <strong><span style="color:black">“Anatomy of Melancholia”</span></strong> analyzes the various aesthetic and philosophical strands of von Trier’s film, arguing that it performs a complex ethical critique
of rationalist optimism in the guise of a neo-romantic allegory of world-destruction.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><br>
Taking the starting point in the controversies raised by von Trier’s depictions of female protagonists in his cinematic oeuvre as either “sacrificial love” or “virtuous excess,”
<span style="color:black">Magdalena Zolkos</span>’s <strong><span style="color:black">“Turbulence and Urgency: Von Trier’s Melancholic Femininities at the End of Times”</span></strong> offers a reading of the female figuration of Melancholia (impersonated in
the protagonist Justine) from the perspective of the Romanticist aesthetics and undertones of the film.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><u><span style="color:black">Programme</span></u></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">Chair</span></strong> Lorraine Sim<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">5:00 to 5:30</span></strong> Chris Peterson (University of Western Sydney)<em> The ‘Magic Cave’ of Allegory</em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">5:30 to 6:00</span></strong> Alex Ling (University of Western Sydney)<em> Between Saturation and Exhaustion: Lars von Trier and the Melancholy Death of Cinema</em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">6:00 to 6:15</span></strong> Break<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">6:15 to 6:45</span></strong><em> </em>Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie University)<em> Anatomy of </em>Melancholia<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">6:45 to 7:15</span></strong><em> </em>Magdalena Zolkos (University of Western Sydney)<em> Turbulence and Urgency: Von Trier’s Melancholic Femininities at the End of Times</em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">7:15 – 8:15</span></strong> Question and Answer<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">8:15 to 9:30</span></strong> Drinks and canapés<o:p></o:p></p>
<p> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">Dr. Christopher Peterson</span></strong> is Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">Dr. Alex Ling</span></strong> is Research Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">Dr. Robert Sinnerbrink</span></strong> is Lecturer in Philosophy at Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:black">Dr. Magdalena Zolkos</span></strong> is Senior Research Fellow in Political Theory in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">- - - - - - - - -<br>
Dimitris Vardoulakis<br>
University of Western Sydney<br>
School of Humanities and Communication Arts<br>
Bankstown Campus, 7.G.11<br>
Locked Bag 1797<br>
Penrith, NSW 2751<br>
AUSTRALIA<br>
<br>
tel: +61 2 9772 6808</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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