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The meaning of history and the uses of translation in news from ideological antiquity

Marx/eisenstein/the capital (video 2008) by Alexander Kluge

Ewa Mazierska

pp. 244-266

Abstract

With a length of 570 minutes, divided into three parts, Alexander Kluge's Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike — Marx/Eisenstein/Das Kapital (News from Ideological Antiquity — Marx/Eisenstein/Capital, 2008) (hereafter MEC), is stylistically one of the most heterogeneous and complex films ever made, where "film" is understood widely, including also other forms of moving image, such as video. It is also one of the most complex political works on account of the subjects discussed, such as class relations, and its form, which emphasises discursive activity, making us aware that the reality which unfolds in front of us when we watch a film is never natural, but mediated. As a complex and heterogeneous film, MEC lends itself to a comparison with Histoire(s) du Cinéma (1988–1998) by Jean-Luc Godard; as a complex and heterogeneous political work, to Marx's Das Kapital, which can be described, to use Gérard Genette's terminology, as its principal hypotext, which the hypertext transforms, modifies, elaborates or extends (Stam 2000: 65–66).

Publication details

Published in:

Mazierska Ewa, Kristensen Lars (2014) Marx at the movies: revisiting history, theory and practice. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 244-266

DOI: 10.1057/9781137378613_12

Full citation:

Mazierska Ewa (2014) „The meaning of history and the uses of translation in news from ideological antiquity: Marx/eisenstein/the capital (video 2008) by Alexander Kluge“. , 244–266.