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Can You See the Picture of Borges?: The Haunting Presence of Borges in Donald Cammell's 1970 Film Performance

Rowlandson, William (2013) Can You See the Picture of Borges?: The Haunting Presence of Borges in Donald Cammell's 1970 Film Performance. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 49 (3). pp. 332-346. ISSN 0015-8518. E-ISSN 1471-6860. (doi:10.1093/fmls/cqt001) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:43239)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqt001

Abstract

Visual references to Borges abound in Cammell's film Performance, passages from Borges's tales are read out, and Borges's face appears in the harrowing final scene. Cammell himself discusses the impact of Borges upon his art in many interviews and makes further reference to Borges in later films. However, perhaps owing to the psychedelic aesthetic of Performance and its counter-cultural embellishments, the strong influence of Borges upon it has been largely overlooked in the scholarship both of the film and of Borges. This article seeks to explore the deeper resonance of Borges not only on the script, but importantly upon the production and the cast. It becomes clear that Cammell's inclusion of Borges imagery was one aspect of an overt homage to the author, in which he evoked key elements in the plot and the characterization that play out philosophical and literary ideas central to Borges and his work.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/fmls/cqt001
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PQ Romance Literature > PQ6001 Spanish Literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Fiona Symes
Date Deposited: 09 Oct 2014 12:27 UTC
Last Modified: 06 May 2020 03:10 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/43239 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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