Hiroshima After Iraq: Three Studies in Art and War

121 Pages·2010·2.69 MB·English

by  Rosalyn Deutsche

d hiroshima after iraq
e
(CONTINUED FROM FRONT FLAP) PRAISE FOR u Many on the left lament an apathy or
hiroshima after iraq ts amnesia toward recent acts of war. Par-
c three studies in art and war
questioning both the role of totalizing h ticularly during the George W. Bush ad-
e
images in the production of warlike sub- ministration’s invasion of Iraq, opposi-
jects and the fantasies that perpetuate, tion to war seemed to lack the heat and
“Hiroshima After Iraq is a powerful, timely, and original con-
especially among the left, traditional no- potency of the 1960s and 1970s, giving
tribution to the cultural discourse on art, war, and contempo-
tions of political dissent. She ultimately the impression that passionate dissent
reveals the passive collusion between rary art criticism. Like Judith Butler’s Precarious Life and Susan was all but dead.
h
leftist critique and dominant discourse Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others, Rosalyn Deutsche’s
i
in which personal dimensions of war are elegantly concise and pointed analysis promises to be imme- r Through an analysis of three politically
o
denied. engaged works of art, Rosalyn Deutsche
diately and enduringly influential as an intervention in the
s
argues against this melancholic attitude,
h
ethicopolitical discourse of the Iraq era. I found it gripping.”
confirming the power of contemporary
i
ROSALYN DEUTSCHE is an art historian m art to criticize subjectivity as well as
—Mignon Nixon, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
and critic who teaches modern and con- war. Deutsche selects three videos cen-
a
temporary art at Barnard College. She is tered on the deployment of the atomic

the author of Evictions: Art and Spatial “Rosalyn Deutsche argues for a certain modesty—or perhaps, a bomb: Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Hiroshima
f
Politics, which investigates the politics I should say, a modest uncertainty—with regard to the de- t Projection (1999), made after the first
of space in art, architecture, and urban e Gulf War; Silvia Kolbowski’s After Hiro-
mands placed upon art in response to war. She brings a deep
planning and design. r shima mon amour (2005–2008); and Les-
knowledge of both contemporary art and the psychoanalytic
i lie Thornton’s Let Me Count the Ways
r
literature on war to her study as well as the careful exposition a (2004–2008), which followed the U.S. in-
and lucid prose we’ve come to expect from her work.” q vasion of Iraq.
—Douglas Crimp, author of Melancholia and Moralism: Each of these works confronts the ethi-
cal task of addressing historical disaster,
Essays on AIDS and Queer Politics
rosalyn deutsche and each explores the intersection of
past and present wars. These artworks
The Wellek Library Lectures c
o profoundly contribute to the discourse
l
u of war resistance, illuminating the com-
m
Columbia University Press / New York
plex dynamics of viewing and interpre-
b
Jacket image: www.cup.columbia.edu ia tation. Deutsche employs feminist and
Leslie Thornton, Let Me Count the Ways, 2004–2008,
psychoanalytic approaches in her study,
still from color video.
Jacket design: Milenda Nan Ok Lee (CONTINUED ON BACK FLAP)
Printed in the U.S.A.
hiroshima after iraq
wellek library lectures
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED WELLEK LIBRARY LECTURES
The Breaking of the Vessels The Fateful Question of Culture
Harold Bloom (1983) Geoff rey Hartman (1997)
In the Tracks of Historical Materialism The Range of Interpretation
Perry Anderson (1984) Wolfgang Iser (2000)
Forms of Attention History’s Disquiet: Modernity and
Frank Kermode (1985) Everyday Life
Harry Harootunian (2000)
Memoires for Paul de Man
Jacques Derrida (1986) Antigone’s Claim: Kinship Between Life
and Death
The Ethics of Reading Judith Butler (2000)
J. Hillis Miller (1987)
The Vital Illusion
Peregrinations: Law, Form, Event Jean Baudrillard (2000)
Jean- François Lyotard (1988)
Death of a Discipline
A Reopening of Closure: Organicism Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (2003)
Against Itself
Murray Krieger (1989) Postcolonial Melancholia
Paul Gilroy (2005)
Musical Elaborations
Edward W. Said (1991) On Suicide Bombing
Talal Asad (2007)
Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing
Hélène Cixous (1993) Cosmopolitanism and the Geographies
of Freedom
The Seeds of Time David Harvey (2009)
Fredric Jameson (1994)
Refi guring Life: Meta phors of
Twentieth- Century Biology
Evelyn Fox Keller (1995)
hiroshima after iraq
three studies in art and war
rosalyn deutsche
columbia university press
new york
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2010 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Columbia University Press would like to express its appreciation to the Graham
Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts for assistance with the costs of
illustrations in this volume.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Deutsche, Rosalyn.
Hiroshima after Iraq: three studies in art and war / Rosalyn Deutsche.
p. cm.—(Wellek library lectures in critical theory)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-15278-5 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Art and war. 2. Kolbowski, Silvia. After Hiroshima mon amour.
3. Wodiczko, Krzysztof. Hiroshima projection. 4. Thornton, Leslie, 1951–
Let me count the ways. I. Title. II. Title: Three studies in art and war.
III. Series.
N8260.D48 2010
700.1'03—dc22
2010000457
Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid- free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for Web sites that
may have expired or changed since the book was prepared.
editorial note
The Wellek Library Lectures in Critical Theory are given annually at
the University of California, Irvine, under the auspices of the Critical
Theory Institute. The following lectures were given in May 2009.
The Critical Theory Institute
Kavita Philip, Director

To
Jennifer Hayslett
and
Elizabeth Miller

contents
Ac know ledg ments xi
Introduction 1
one
Silvia Kolbowski 9
two
Leslie Thornton 33
three
Krzysztof Wodiczko 55
Notes 71
Bibliography 77
Index 83