Taking a cue from Jacques Derrida's Glas,this paper seeks to understand the idea of thanatopraxie or embalming in art.It sees thanatopraxie as a strategy to(en)counter the prevalent idea of a“book”as the reposit...Taking a cue from Jacques Derrida's Glas,this paper seeks to understand the idea of thanatopraxie or embalming in art.It sees thanatopraxie as a strategy to(en)counter the prevalent idea of a“book”as the repository of the“truth”and the“divine.”It argues that a work of art can only exist in the world by transforming into“what(ever)remains”of a work-a wo-.Thanatopraxie thus,brings down a work from the realm of the transcendental and the divine to the world of banal existence.And,in order to comprehend these maneuverings,this paper looks into“Tithonus”and A Tale of Tub as texts where the“penetrable openings”are purposely kept open for the transformation of a work(in)to a wo-.展开更多
文摘Taking a cue from Jacques Derrida's Glas,this paper seeks to understand the idea of thanatopraxie or embalming in art.It sees thanatopraxie as a strategy to(en)counter the prevalent idea of a“book”as the repository of the“truth”and the“divine.”It argues that a work of art can only exist in the world by transforming into“what(ever)remains”of a work-a wo-.Thanatopraxie thus,brings down a work from the realm of the transcendental and the divine to the world of banal existence.And,in order to comprehend these maneuverings,this paper looks into“Tithonus”and A Tale of Tub as texts where the“penetrable openings”are purposely kept open for the transformation of a work(in)to a wo-.
