Actuality in the making: Ontological non-foundationalism in Petr Zelenka’s The Karamazovs

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship between the fictional and the actual in Petr Zelenka’s The Karamazovs (Karamazovi, 2008). I discuss how this relationship is established, proposing a typology of connections between these two domains, and explore its philosophical implications for understanding the ontology of the actual world in the film. Drawing on Derrida’s notion of supplementarity, I argue that the fiction–actuality relationship in The Karamazovs is based on a paradox: it simultaneously subverts and maintains the ontological status of the actual world. On one hand, therefore, Zelenka’s film suggests that what is taken to be actual is neither self-sufficient nor anchored in, or illustrative of, any objective ontological structure. On the other hand, the film emphasizes the distinction between fiction and actuality, implying that the notion of the actual world should not be ‘fictionalized’ or simply discarded. In this way, I argue, The Karamazovs suggests an ontology that redefines the notion of the actual world in non-foundationalist terms.

Keywords:

• Czech cinema
• Petr Zelenka
• fiction and actuality
• fictional worlds
• supplementarity
• non-foundationalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The performance was part of the theater’s repertoire from 2000 to 2014.

2 This is not to suggest that fictional worlds theory assumes that the actual world is unchangeable. As Elam aptly puts is, ‘our notion of the world and its individuals and properties is founded on a certain epistemological (and thus ideological) order—rather than on absolute and fixed universal laws’ (2002, 96). What the actual world is taken to be, therefore, is not an ahistorical constant; this, however, does not invalidate the idea that, regardless of its changeable ‘content,’ the dynamics of the dichotomy between the actual and the fictional require that the actual world be perceived in terms of ontological positivity and, as such, be considered complete and self-sufficient.

3 The performance is also watched by the actors (when they are not performing their parts), the troupe’s director, and the organizer of the festival. However, the film mostly focuses on the reactions of the ‘non-theatrical’ audience (exemplified by the figure of the maintenance worker).

4 For Derrida’s discussion of the speech-writing distinction, see 1998, 141–164. An example of his take on the inside-outside opposition can be found in 1987, 37–82.

5 Fictional worlds are incomplete in that they are only partially and fragmentarily described. According to fictional worlds theory, the incomplete character of fictional worlds is what distinguishes them from possible worlds of logical semantics. Possible worlds of logic are fully described, or to put it differently, they are exhausted by their state descriptions, and therefore they generate worlds which are completely determinate structures. This, however, is not the case with possible worlds of fiction, where, as Pavel puts it, ‘indeterminacy strikes at random’ (1986, 107). A major distinctive feature of fictional worlds, their incompleteness invites conceptual labor on the part of their decoders, which means that these worlds can be (re)constructed in many different ways (see Elam 2002, 90). Viewed in this context, what is taken to be real is complete in the sense that it is determinate and exists independently of our descriptions of it—that is, it is not of our making.

6 As Goodman puts it, ‘If I were asked what is the food for men, I should have to answer “none.” For there are many foods. And if I am asked what is the way the world is, I must likewise answer, “none.” For the world is many ways’ (1960, 55).

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Łukasz Siciński

Łukasz Siciński is a lecturer in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at Indiana University Bloomington. His research interests include 20th-century Polish literature, philosophy of language, postwar Polish cinema, and contemporary Czech cinema. He is currently working on a book on the epistemological dimension of rubbish in the works of Miron Białoszewski and Tadeusz Różewicz.