Abstract
In the mimeticist inheritance, film as a form of art stands out as a language of time. Temporal coherence and congruity construct — in a schematized structure — a response to a reality and a production of an imaginary world. It would be misleading to evaluate the quality of vraisemblance in a world-reflecting schema and maintain mimesis as a single, fixed reading of art and aesthetics. Rather mimesis presents a quest for meaning, whether that meaning is the issue of discovery or invention, or — most plausibly — both. Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark (Russkii kovcheg, 2002) is a universally acclaimed production that questions interpretations based on mimetic dogmas, transcends film genre boundaries and celebrates illusion, visions and dreams. It is a cinematic text that draws on the whole material fabric of culture, including its visual and musical artefacts.
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© 2009 Vlad Strukov
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Strukov, V. (2009). A Journey through Time: Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark and Theories of Mimesis. In: Nagib, L., Mello, C. (eds) Realism and the Audiovisual Media. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246973_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246973_9
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