Saturday, January 19, 2008

Levinas, Bak, and Interpretation


I'm currently co-guest-editing an issue of Modern Fiction Studies. The topic is Levinas and Narrative, and we have finally chosen an image for the cover of the issue (above). It's a piece called "Interpretation" (2003) by Samuel Bak, who is one of my favorite artists of all time. Isn't it lovely?

You can see more of Bak's work here.

3 comments:

Insignificant Wrangler said...

Great picture for the topic. I wish the key clearly didn't fit the (w)hole, but I'll take it as is.

Unknown said...

Hey wow! That's amazing news!

Monica said...

Insignificant Wrangler-- Well, the key only fits the (w)hole (according to my reading of the text) because it is symbolic of multiple, ongoing interpretations. The key is shaped like a beit, which is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and also the first letter of the Bereshit (creation narratives, and in Judaism creation is ongoing rather than part of a beginning-end structure). So my reading of this painting, is that only ongoing/continual interpretation opens up the text. Cool, no?


Oh, and thanks, Adam!