Desire, incomprehensibility, and despair in the Antarctic vision of Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World concerns human ideals of exploration in the extreme environment of the Antarctic. Throughout the film, Herzog and his characters enrol the Antarctic variously as a site of desire and as a site of incomprehensibility in self-told nar...
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ftunivalcala:oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/24294 2024-01-14T10:01:46+01:00 Desire, incomprehensibility, and despair in the Antarctic vision of Werner Herzog Deseo, incomprensibilidad y desesperación en la visión antártica de Werner Herzog Barber, Jacob 2015-10 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10017/24294 spa spa Universidad de Alcalá http://www.ecozona.eu/index.php/journal/article/view/578/1133 Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, vol. 6, n. 2 (2015), pp. 141-156 2171-9594 http://hdl.handle.net/10017/24294 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Werner Herzog Antarctica Climate change Myth Despair History Antártida Cambio climático Mito Desesperanza Historia Literatura Medio ambiente Literature Environmental science info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2015 ftunivalcala 2023-12-20T00:27:05Z Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World concerns human ideals of exploration in the extreme environment of the Antarctic. Throughout the film, Herzog and his characters enrol the Antarctic variously as a site of desire and as a site of incomprehensibility in self-told narratives about their own lives. Their ability to do so is a consequence of both popular myth that casts the Antarctic as a static and empty wasteland, and nationalistic modes of governance that promote science but squeeze other modes of knowing to the fringe. The characters in Herzog’s film are thus doomed to a cycle of endless repetition: forced by myth to constantly revisit the moment of discovery, and constrained by modes of governance that deny formal expression of the heightened sensibility they experience when engaging with Antarctic space. Ultimately, this cycle generates despair and so the film bears witness to an inversion of frontier tropes: Instead of heroic white male coming to the aid of nature in distress we instead find the heroic white male in distress staring into an utterly hopeless void. In this way, Herzog’s film becomes a parable about history constraining new forms of knowing. In an age of increasing environmental uncertainty, and with the Antarctic enrolled as both a litmus test for human impacts on the planet, and for gauging the future of the human race, Encounters asks us to reject history where history teaches us nothing new, and it asks us to find ways to renew the great experiment of living in the world. El documental "Encounters at the End of the World" (2007) de Werner Herzog reflexiona sobre los ideales humanos de exploración en el medioambiente extremo de la Antártida. A lo largo de la película, Herzog y sus personajes dan un rol a la Antártida como lugar de deseo y como lugar incomprensible en las narrativas que los personajes cuentan ellos mismos sobre sus propias vidas. Su habilidad para hacer esto es consecuencia del mito popular que muestra la Antártida como un páramo estático y ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Antártica Antártida e_Buah - Biblioteca Digital de la Universidad de Alcalá Antarctic The Antarctic Consecuencia ENVELOPE(-60.783,-60.783,-63.717,-63.717) Deseo ENVELOPE(-58.750,-58.750,-64.500,-64.500) Desesperación ENVELOPE(-46.183,-46.183,-60.550,-60.550) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
e_Buah - Biblioteca Digital de la Universidad de Alcalá |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalcala |
language |
Spanish |
topic |
Werner Herzog Antarctica Climate change Myth Despair History Antártida Cambio climático Mito Desesperanza Historia Literatura Medio ambiente Literature Environmental science |
spellingShingle |
Werner Herzog Antarctica Climate change Myth Despair History Antártida Cambio climático Mito Desesperanza Historia Literatura Medio ambiente Literature Environmental science Barber, Jacob Desire, incomprehensibility, and despair in the Antarctic vision of Werner Herzog |
topic_facet |
Werner Herzog Antarctica Climate change Myth Despair History Antártida Cambio climático Mito Desesperanza Historia Literatura Medio ambiente Literature Environmental science |
description |
Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World concerns human ideals of exploration in the extreme environment of the Antarctic. Throughout the film, Herzog and his characters enrol the Antarctic variously as a site of desire and as a site of incomprehensibility in self-told narratives about their own lives. Their ability to do so is a consequence of both popular myth that casts the Antarctic as a static and empty wasteland, and nationalistic modes of governance that promote science but squeeze other modes of knowing to the fringe. The characters in Herzog’s film are thus doomed to a cycle of endless repetition: forced by myth to constantly revisit the moment of discovery, and constrained by modes of governance that deny formal expression of the heightened sensibility they experience when engaging with Antarctic space. Ultimately, this cycle generates despair and so the film bears witness to an inversion of frontier tropes: Instead of heroic white male coming to the aid of nature in distress we instead find the heroic white male in distress staring into an utterly hopeless void. In this way, Herzog’s film becomes a parable about history constraining new forms of knowing. In an age of increasing environmental uncertainty, and with the Antarctic enrolled as both a litmus test for human impacts on the planet, and for gauging the future of the human race, Encounters asks us to reject history where history teaches us nothing new, and it asks us to find ways to renew the great experiment of living in the world. El documental "Encounters at the End of the World" (2007) de Werner Herzog reflexiona sobre los ideales humanos de exploración en el medioambiente extremo de la Antártida. A lo largo de la película, Herzog y sus personajes dan un rol a la Antártida como lugar de deseo y como lugar incomprensible en las narrativas que los personajes cuentan ellos mismos sobre sus propias vidas. Su habilidad para hacer esto es consecuencia del mito popular que muestra la Antártida como un páramo estático y ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Barber, Jacob |
author_facet |
Barber, Jacob |
author_sort |
Barber, Jacob |
title |
Desire, incomprehensibility, and despair in the Antarctic vision of Werner Herzog |
title_short |
Desire, incomprehensibility, and despair in the Antarctic vision of Werner Herzog |
title_full |
Desire, incomprehensibility, and despair in the Antarctic vision of Werner Herzog |
title_fullStr |
Desire, incomprehensibility, and despair in the Antarctic vision of Werner Herzog |
title_full_unstemmed |
Desire, incomprehensibility, and despair in the Antarctic vision of Werner Herzog |
title_sort |
desire, incomprehensibility, and despair in the antarctic vision of werner herzog |
publisher |
Universidad de Alcalá |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10017/24294 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-60.783,-60.783,-63.717,-63.717) ENVELOPE(-58.750,-58.750,-64.500,-64.500) ENVELOPE(-46.183,-46.183,-60.550,-60.550) |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic Consecuencia Deseo Desesperación |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic Consecuencia Deseo Desesperación |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Antártica Antártida |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Antártica Antártida |
op_relation |
http://www.ecozona.eu/index.php/journal/article/view/578/1133 Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, vol. 6, n. 2 (2015), pp. 141-156 2171-9594 http://hdl.handle.net/10017/24294 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
_version_ |
1788056460121341952 |