Colonial Continuity:Colonial Continuity: Using Deadwood to understand

Imagination, Affect, and the P i t f th P tPersistence of the Past

Rebecca Johnson, February 17 2012February 17, 2012Centre for Independent Social ResearchSaint Petersburg, Russia

How does colonialism persist?

Intersection of 3Intersection of 3 (Storytelling) Projects(Storytelling) Projects:

1.Judicial Dissent2.Corporations/Business

3 L d Fil3. Law-and-Film

Persuasive Power

"Th t d b l l i

Persuasive Power

"The power exerted by a legal regime consists less in the force that it can bring to bear against violators of its rules than into bear against violators of its rules than in its capacity to persuade people that the world described in its images and categories is the only attainable world in which a sane person would want to live"

Robert Gordon, “Critical Legal Histories”

4

Judicial Dissent as Persuasive (‘Noetic’?) Space

“A distinctively human mental capacity that compels usto project our imaginations beyond the ordinary theto project our imaginations beyond the ordinary, theexpectable, the legitimate – and to involve others in ourimaginings.”g g

“The term, which comes from the Greek, “nous” includesThe term, which comes from the Greek, nous includesnot only the deliberations of the rational mind, but also itsappetites and affections. … its beliefs, desires, feelings,hopes, intentions.”

5

TOPICS OF DISSENTSCC C 1982 2007 (% Di t ithi T i )SCC Cases – 1982-2007 (% Dissent within Topic)

6

Why so little dissent (even from ‘the dissenters’) when it comesthe dissenters ) when it comes

to corporations bankingto corporations, banking, business associations?

Where is the judicial i i i ?economic imaginary?

How does the economy come to be understood as “a space of invariant logics and automatic unfolding thatlogics and automatic unfolding that

offer no field for intervention”? J K Gib G h P t it li t P litiJ.K. Gibson-Graham, Postcapitalist Politics

Said Culture and ImperialismSaid, Culture and Imperialism

“the processes of pImperialism occurred beyond the level of yeconomic laws and political decisions … and were manifested at the level of national culture.”

Said Culture and ImperialismSaid, Culture and Imperialism

• Stories about the past tell us less about that past than about cultural attitudes in the present

• the 19th century novel participated in creatingparticipated in creating ‘structures of feeling’ which supported, elaborated, andsupported, elaborated, and consolidated the practices of empire.empire.

Law and FilmLaw-and-Film

• Film/Television as powerful site of contemporary storytellingp y y g

Li k t th WORD IMAGE SOUND• Links together WORD, IMAGE, SOUND

• Communicates affective energies which pass belo intellect al attention hile stillpass below intellectual attention while still influencing emotions, judgments, actions

Deadwood (HBO, 2004-2006)“A hell of a place to make your fortune”

• David Milch (NYPD Blue))

S t i th t f• Set in the town of Deadwood, with mix of real and fictional characters,fictional characters, 1876 to1878

Compelling CharactersCompelling CharactersWild Bill Hickcock, Seth Bullock Trixie, Calamity Jane

Compelling CharactersCompelling Characters

Wu and his pigs George Hurst, Al Swerengen

Deadwood (HBO, 2004-2006)“A hell of a place to make your fortune”

• But.....Milch says the story is not about the characters but aboutcharacters, but about ‘something larger, about drivers below the surface, ,moving the characters and the action forward’

• This is a story of community building, of

ti b ildination building.

What are ‘the drivers below?”What are the drivers below?What does Deadwood invite us

to feel about the past?• Colonial appropriation of lands and resources (though

morally wrong) was inevitable and unavoidable drivenmorally wrong) was inevitable and unavoidable, driven by the implacably forward driving processes of the economy.y

• That law itself is powerless against the driving forces of economy

• The trauma of the past is a (necessary) moment of ‘founding violence’

H d it h th tHow does it happen that we are invited to share thisare invited to share this

particular structure of feeling?

Ways these ‘structures of feeling’ are embedded and performed in Deadwood:performed in Deadwood:

1. The Narrative Arc

2. The Seriality of Television

3 Cinematic Scenes of Violence3. Cinematic Scenes of Violence

The Narrative Arc – Situating the Genre

.

The Narrative Arc – Situating the Genre

.

The Narrative Arc – Situating the Genre

.

The Narrative ArcThe Narrative ArcCl ll N l ll i D d d?Clell: No law at all in Deadwood?

Is that true?Seth: Bein’ on Indian land.Clell: So then you won’t be a

marshal?S th T ki ’ d th tSeth: Takin’ goods there to open

a hardware business. Me and my partner.

Clell: If I’d a got there, I’d a been prospectin’. Jesus Christ Almighty No law at all GoldAlmighty. No law at all. Gold you can scoop from the streams with your bare hands.

“No law at all in Deadwood?”No law at all in Deadwood?N ti ti• Negotiating details of

t lrental agreement

• An agency agreement to sell goods

• The selling of ga gold claim

“Replication Imperialism”Replication Imperialism

And where are the Indians?And where are the Indians?....we encounter only two, each linked

to one of our central characters Al Swerengen:Business Man

Seth Bullock:Law Man

Seriality:‘Getting into Al’s Headspace’

Scenes of Cinematic ViolenceScenes of Cinematic Violence

• What ‘structures of feeling’ do our stories invite us to share?our stories invite us to share?

• Where are ‘we’ in the stories?

• What space can we find in culture for resistant readings, for enriched noetic accounts of economy?