Apocalypses Now: Two Modes of Vulnerability in Last Night and The Mist
2018; University of Huelva; Volume: 7; Linguagem: Espanhol
10.33776/candb.v7i0.3143
ISSN2254-1179
Autores Tópico(s)Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America
ResumoespanolEste articulo emplea los conceptos de Judith Butler de vulnerabilidad, precariedad y capacidad de ser llorado para analizar dos textos filmicos: la canadiense La Ultima Noche (Don McKellar, 1998) y la estadounidense La Niebla (Frank Darabont, 2007). Ambas fuentes primarias tienen el apocalipsis como su principal elemento narrativo y tematico (un simbolo practicamente inexplorado desde la perspectiva de la produccion de la vulnerabilidad y la dimension corporea de la vida etica y politica). En este articulo llevo a cabo un analisis de ambas peliculas con el fin de identificar y evaluar los modelos altamente contrapuestos de vulnerabilidad producidos en estas dos narraciones. Considero que esas visiones antagonicas radican en los diferentes episodios de (no)valoracion, legitimizacion y reconocimiento que experimentan los cuerpos al enfrentarse el fenomeno mas definitorio de la vulnerabilidad: el apocalipsis. Mi tesis central es que La Ultima Noche se ajusta a la nocion de vulnerabilidad como espacio para la convivencia etica y el entendimiento afectivo al tiempo que construye una vision heterogenea de lo canadiense. Por el contrario, La Niebla emplea la vulnerabilidad como un mecanismo discursivo conducente a toda una serie de asimetrias violentas y procesos de deshumanizacion, rearticulando asi elementos e imagineria claves en la historia cultural estadounidense. EnglishThis paper draws on Judith Butler’s notions of vulnerability, precarity, and grievability to examine two filmic texts: the Canadian Last Night (Don McKellar, 1998) and the American The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007). Both primary sources feature the apocalypse as their principal narrative and thematic concern –a trope virtually unexplored from the standpoint of the production of vulnerability and the bodily dimensions of political and ethical life. In the present contribution I conduct a close analysis of both films so as to identify and evaluate the significantly contrasting modes of vulnerability produced in these two narrations. I argue that these conflicting worldviews originate from the differentiated episodes of (de)valuation, legitimization, and recognition experienced by and in bodies in the face of the ultimate phenomenon of vulnerability: the apocalypse. My structuring argument is that Last Night complies with the notion of vulnerability as a locus of ethical cohabitation and affective engagement while constructing a heterogeneous sense of Canadianness. The Mist, on the other hand, deploys vulnerability as a discursive mechanism that causes individual and social bodies to be subjected to a range of violence-prone asymmetries and processes of dehumanization, rearticulating key rhetoric and imagery from American cultural history
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