Of Elephants and Toothaches

Of Elephants and Toothaches

Ethics, Politics, and Religion in Krzysztof Kieslowski's 'Decalogue'

  • Autor: Badowska, Eva; Parmeggiani, Francesca
  • Editor: Fordham University Press
  • ISBN: 9780823269273
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780823267125
  • eISBN Epub: 9780823267118
  • Lloc de publicació:  New York , United States
  • Any de publicació: 2016
  • Any de publicació digital: 2016
  • Mes: Juny
  • Idioma: Anglés

This collection is the first to offer a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue, a ten-film cycle of modern tales that touch on the ethical dilemmas of the Ten Commandments. The cycle’s deft handling of moral ambiguity and inventive technique established Kieślowski as a major international director.

Kieślowski once said, “Both the deep believer and the habitual skeptic experience toothaches in exactly the same way.” Of Elephants and Toothaches takes seriously the range of thought, from theological to skeptical, condensed in the cycle’s quite human tales. Bringing together scholars of film, philosophy, literature, and several religions, the volume ranges from individual responsibility, to religion in modernity, to familial bonds, to human desire and material greed. It explores Kieślowski’s cycle as it relentlessly solicits an ethical response that stimulates both inner disquiet and interpersonal dialogue.

  • Cover
  • Half-Title
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Contents
  • Introduction: “Within unrest, there is always a question”
  • 1. Rules and Virtues: The Moral Insight of The Decalogue
  • 2. Tablets of Stone, Tablets of Flesh: Synesthetic Appeal in The Decalogue
  • 3. Decalogue One: Witnessing a Responsible Ethics of Response from a Jewish Perspective
  • 4. Visual Reverberations: Decalogue Two and Decalogue Eight
  • 5. Remember the Sabbath Day, to Keep It Holy: Decalogue Three
  • 6. Decalogue Four: The Mother up in Smoke, or “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother”
  • 7. Decalogue Five: A Short Film about Killing, Sin, and Community
  • 8. States of Exception: Politics and Poetics in Decalogue Six
  • 9. Decalogue Seven: A Tale of Love, Failing Words, and Moving Images
  • 10. Decalogue Eight: Childhood, Emotion, and the Shoah
  • 11. Divine Possession: Metaphysical Covetousness in Decalogue
  • 12. Laughter Makes Good Neighbors: Sociability and the Comic in Decalogue Ten
  • Acknowledgments
  • List of Contributors
  • Index
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