A Question of Listening: Nancean Resonance and Listening in the Work of Charlie Chaplin

<p>In this thesis, I use a close reading of the silent films of Charlie Chaplin to <br/> examine a question of listening posed by Jean-Luc Nancy, “Is listening <br/> something of which philosophy is capable” (Nancy 2007:1)? Drawing on the <br/> work of Nancy, Jacques Derrida and Gayatri Spivak, I consider a claim that <br/> philosophy has failed to address the topic of listening because a logocentric <br/> tradition claims speech as primary. In response to Derrida’s deconstruction of <br/> logocentrism, Nancy complicates the problem of listening by distinguishing <br/> between l’écoute and l’entente. L’écoute is an attending to and answering the <br/> demand of the other and l’entente is an understanding directed inward toward a <br/> subject. Nancy could deconstruct an undervalued position of l’écoute, making <br/> listening essential to speech. I argue, Nancy rather asks what kind of listening <br/> philosophy is capable of. <br/> To examine this question, I focus on the peculiarly dialogical figure derived from <br/> Chaplin that communicates meaning without using speech. This discussion <br/> illustrates how Chaplin, in the role of a silent figure, listens to himself (il <br/> s’écoute) as other. Chaplin’s listening is Nancean resonance, a movement in <br/> which a subject refers back to itself as another subject, in constant motion of <br/> spatial and temporal non-presence. For Nancy, listening is a self’s relationship to <br/> itself, but without immediate self-presence. Moving in resonance, Chaplin makes <br/> the subject as other as he refers back to himself as other. I argue that Chaplin, <br/> through silent dialogue with himself by way of the other, makes his listening <br/> listened to. Chaplin refused to make his character speak because he believed <br/> speech would change the way in which his work would be listened to. In this <br/> way, Chaplin makes people laugh by making himself understood (se fait <br/> entendre) as he makes himself listened to (se fait écouter). In answer to Nancy’s <br/> question, I conclude philosophy is capable of meeting the demand of listening as <br/> both l’entente and l’écoute when it listens as Chaplin listens. </p>

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral Thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Dundee

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Giunta, Carolyn Sara

• Jean-Luc Nancy
• Charlie Chaplin
• Jacques Derrida
• Gayatri Spivak
• Listening
• Logocentrism
• Resonance

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

oai:discovery.dundee.ac.uk:studenttheses/cc5a1d72-c86a-4569-9432-ffddbfa4b7e0

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:discovery.dundee.ac.uk:studenttheses/cc5a1d72-c86a-4569-9432-ffddbfa4b7e0