REORIENT:

In 1967, John Barth published the controversial and well-known essay, The Literature of Exhaustion,which proposed that the conventional modes of literary representation had been consumed, and their possibilities expended through depletion. The implications of this ‘exhaustion’, which extend to all forms of artistic production, seem to take on a heightened relevance today. At a time when notions of authenticity in the face of relativity, plurality, and hybridity seem to be dominating roundtable debates, it may be beneficial to return to a discussion of the literary masterpiece The Thousand and One Nights,and, more specifically, Il Fiore Delle Mille e Una Note, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s controversial 1974 cinematic adaptation of it. If what immediately comes to mind is how repetitive or unoriginal the film may seem, then it can be argued to well serve as the basis in exploring the fittingly jejune question, has all art already been made?

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