prof. dr. M.G. Bal
-
Faculty of Humanities
-
Spuistraat
210
1012 VT Amsterdam
-
M.G.Bal@uva.nl
T: 0205253885
Website Mieke Bal
For more updated information and upcoming events, please check www.miekebal.org
(ASCA)Amsterdam SchoolforCultural Analysis
Mieke Bal is Professor of Theory of Literature and a founding director of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA).
Recent News
Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen
(Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
Professor Bal (1946) has been awarded an Academy Professorship
for her original contributions to narratology and to her
application of the principles of literary theoryto the
visualarts. A prime example of her contributions in the field
of narratology is her trilogy on the bible from a feminist
perspective. Her application of the principles of literary
theory to the visual arts is highly innovative, bold and
imaginative. In the broad field of cultural analysis Professor
Bal is both widely respected and highly admired.
Full text and citations forProf. dr. M.G.Bal
Click the link below to directly access Mieke Bal's work in
the Digital Academic Repository at the University of
Amsterdam
N.B. full-text coming soon
Fields of Interest
theoretical :
cultural analysis; critical semiotics; feminist theory;
relations between verbal and visual arts; transcultural theory;
anthropology; narratology; psychoanalysis; methodology of
interdisciplinary approaches; museology
analytical :
contemporary literature; French and English nineteenth-century
literature; Hebrew Bible; seventeenth-century art (Rembrandt);
popular culture; language and science
Current Research
From previous projects, four strands remain active:
- Narratology Between the Disciplines
My ongoing interest in the revision of the nature, modes,
functions and forms of narrativity incontemporary culture led
to the thoroughlyrevised andexpanded version of my handbook
Narratology (1997; or. Dutch 1979, Eng. 1987). However, I am
not satisfied that the book as it now stands can remain valid
for much longer. I envisage a completely new version, perhaps
as a follow-up book, perhapsas a replacement. The intentionwill
be tofully integrate the interdisciplinary perspective that I
have developed over the past decade.
- Travelling Concepts
This project results from my intense involvement with PhD
training, both in the context of the ASCA Theory Seminar and in
a large number of individual PhD projects. Through these
pedagogical activities - traditionally and oddly credited as
"research", not asteaching, in the Netherlands - I have
developed insight into the indispensable contribution that can
be expected to be made from reflecting on and deploying
concepts in interdisciplinary cultural analysis. I am currently
writing a book, contracted with the University of Toronto Press
(the publisher of my previous pedagogically oriented work),
which consists of an argument in favour of this view. Four case
studies demonstrate the consequences of replacing paradigm- and
discipline-based methodologies with an open re-examination of
concepts that have a history of "travelling" between
disciplines, historical periods and contexts,and even
cultures.
- In Time: Between Performance and Performativity
Performance is not; it occurs. It happens and takes time; it
has a past and a future, and hence, a present. From linguistics
and the philosophy of language, we take the notion that
utterances do something: they perform an act that produces an
event. From theatre, we borrow the notion of role-playing,
which can be extended to include social role-playing, then
restrict it to that aspect of playing that is effective in that
it affects the viewer. From anthropology, we take the idea that
the performative speech actin the extended sense requires the
participation, in the productionof meaning, of the
ethnographer's partner, that is, of the people belonging to the
culture studied. In art, this entails the indispensable
participation of the visitor to the museum or the viewer of the
work, without whom the artwork is simply nothing, just adead
object.In thisproject, then,due to this triple allegiance, the
notion of "performance" must be taken in all its ambiguity. The
term encompasses "performativity" as opposed to being distinct
from it. I have tentatively worked with this cluster of aspects
of the two terms in several recent articles on contemporary art
not bound to specific traditional media. I would like to turn
this into a book project, grounding it theoretically and using
literary terms.
- Preposterous History
This term was central to one of my recent books, but I am not
satisfied I have fully grounded or exploited the underlying
idea. Under the heading "indispensable anachronism" (Damisch),
others have elaborated it differently. I am interested in
joining this inquiry with current concerns about tradition,
both cultural and academic, and with methodological issues of
distance and proximity (Phillips), the place of the archive and
museum presentations.
Selected books
- Loving Yussuf. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2007 (in press)
- Sleeping Beauty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2007 (in press) (with John Sparagana)
- A Mieke Bal Reader. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press (2006) Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide . Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2002
- Mieke Bal Kulturanalyse . Ed. Thomas Fechner-Smarsly and SonjaNeef. Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp2002
- Louise Bourgeois' Spider : The Architecture of Art-writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2001
- Ann Veronica Janssens: Lichtspiel . German translation by Karen Lauer. Munich: Kunstverein München/Berliner Künstlerprogramm/DADD 2001
- Looking In: The Art of Viewing . Edited, and with an introduction, by Norman Bryson. Amsterdam: G & B Arts International 2001
- Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History . Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1999 (paperback 2001)
- Jeannette Christensen's Time . Bergen: Center for the Study of European Civilization 1998
- Schweben zwischen Gegenstand und Erei gnis: Begegnungen mit Lili Dujourie . München: Kunstverein München,München:Wilhelm Fink Verlag (trans. by SilviaFriedrich Rust) 1998. For 1998 München exhibition "Lili Dujourie: Frühe Werke, 1969-1983". English edition: Hovering Between Thing and Event: Encounters with Lili Dujourie. München: Kunstverein München, Brussels: Xavier Hufkens, London: Lisson Gallery 1998
- Images littéraires, ou comment lire visuellement Proust . Montréal: XYZ Editeur/Toulouse: Presses Universitaires de Toulouse 1997. English translation: The Mottled Screen: Reading Proust Visually. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1997 (trans. by Anna-Louise Milne)
- Double Exposures: The Subject of Cultural Analysis , with Edwin Janssen, Das Gesicht an der Wand (The Stain/Face on the Wall). New York: Routledge 1996
- On Meaning-Making: Essays in Semiotics . Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press 1994
- Reading "Rembrandt": Beyond the Word-Image Opposition . New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1991; 2nd edition (paperback) 1994
Current Video Work
- Mère Folle, with Michelle Williams (in production)
- Separations, with Andréa Seligmann Silva, 2009
- State of Suspension, with Benny Brunner, 2008
- Becoming Vera, with Michelle Williams, 2007
- Un Trabajo Limpio, with Gary Ward , 2007
- Colony Cinema Suitcase, social documentary, 30 minutes. 2007
- nothing is missing multiple-screen video installation, 25-35 minutes (looped). 2006
- Road Movie, with Shahram Entekhabi, 16-minute video
- Access Denied, Cinema Suitcase Access Denied, Cinema Suitcase, social documentary, Amsterdam/Gaza 2005.
- Glub (Hearts), with Shahram Entekhabi, 30-minute art film and an 8-screen video installation, Berlin 2004.
- Favourite Spots, 15-minute video on the exhibition "Louise Bourgeois: Geometry of Desire", Zacheta Gallery of Contemporary Art, Warsaw 2003.
- Eye Contact, with ShahramEntekhabi, 10-minute video onthe exhibition "Intimate Abstractions: Louise Bourgeois", Akademie der Künste, Berlin 2003.
- Mille et unjours, Cinema Suitcase, 40-minute social documentary onmigration, Amsterdam/Paris 2003, distributed by VTape,Toronto.
- ArtClips, series of nine 6½-minute video clips on
audience interaction with single art works. Los Angeles, The
Getty Research Institute 2002
Items in this series:
- Rembrandt: Marking Time / The landscape of the face
- David Reed: Looking with the body
- Liz Larner: Moving Still
- Bernardino Mei: Make Your Own Story
- Francesco Maffei: Performing Gender
- Louise Bourgeois: Scuttling Around
- John Baldessari: Puzzling
- Ingrid Calame: Wandering, Wondering
- Marlene Dumas: Black-Out, Blind Eye
Videos by Cinema Suitcase distributed by Vtape, Toronto; works with Shahram Entekhabi distributed by Galerie Urs Meile, Zürich , and Play Gallery, Berlin