Functions of Death and Sacrifice in the Artistic Event Forming a Theory of Art in E. Sabato’s The Tunnel (1948), D. Hatzēs’ “The killing of Elizabeth Molnar” (1976) and D. Aronofsky’s mother! (2017)
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Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to propose a new scope on materiality in two literary and one cinematographic example. However, the paper defines two major thematic categories, death and sacrifice, whose functions in the works cited permit the approach of this hypothesis. In order to support this endeavor, I provide a framework of preliminary thoughts of artists concerning the act of creating and a brief reference to the concept of event so that the artistic one, that is the main focus of the paper even, be presented. Furthermore, I introduce metamateriality, i.e., materiality of a second degree, a concept according to which materiality is not approached literally; it focuses neither on the materials used to create each artwork nor those who are mentioned or thematized in each artwork. It concerns the diegetic manifestations of whatever can be used as material to create Art and in this instance the death and/or sacrifice of a human being. In conclusion, I attempt an exemplary implementation of this theory in E. Sabato’s The Tunnel (1948), D. Hatzēs’ “The killing of Elizabeth Molnar” (1976) and D. Aronofsky’s mother! (2017).
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Skouris, I. D. (2023). Functions of Death and Sacrifice in the Artistic Event: Forming a Theory of Art in E. Sabato’s The Tunnel (1948), D. Hatzēs’ “The killing of Elizabeth Molnar” (1976) and D. Aronofsky’s mother! (2017). Comparison, 32, 194–210. Retrieved from https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/sygkrisi/article/view/35740
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