Perfectionism, Therapy and the Everyday: on Cavell on Makavejev
Perfectionism, Therapy and the Everyday: on Cavell on Makavejev

Summary/Abstract: A substantial strand in the interpretations of the films of Dušan Makavejevforegrounds the juxtaposition between ordinary life and public perfectionist strivings, andargues that the director takes the side of the former against the latter. A reference to StanleyCavell, the philosopher to whom we owe some canonical interpretations of Makavejev, appearsto be crucial in those readings. However, both Cavell’s and Makavejev’s views on thematters of the everyday are far more complex than the prevailing dichotomous readings suggest.It is my view that the critics who came after Cavell significantly diluted the complexity ofhis arguments on the everyday, which are not limited only to his writings on Makavejev, butalso include his interpretations of Emerson and Wittgenstein. Hence I argue that the morenuanced reading of Cavell’s work – and not just his dwellings on Makavejev – paves the wayfor the more salient interpretations of the former’s work.

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