Dogville, or, the Dirty Birth of Law

Abstract

While avoiding the pretence of producing an exhaustive reading of such a complex object as Lars Von Trier's Dogville, this article selectively uses the film to explore the process of the emergence of a new legality and a new set of legal relationships within a community. Two superimposed layers of meaning, the biblical and the mythic, are considered and their interaction with two different reasons, the symbolic and the economic, is suggested and explored. The categories of 'critical being', by Fitzpatrick and Tuitt, and homo sacer, by Agamben, are taken as useful tools to understand such interaction and the connected dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. Throughout the article, it is argued that the perspective of the sacrifice, as framed especially by Girard, is useful to highlight an anthropological mechanism that can be retrieved in Dogville.

The Role Of The Refugee And The Impact Of Fragmented Identities In Diasporic Filmmakers. A Review Of Dogville By Lars von Trier

“…As noted by Andrea Brighenti (2006), the treatment Grace undergoes is particularly similar to that of sacrificeable prisoners of war in many primitive societies: from the initial, apparent progressive inclusion into the community to 'preparation' of the victim through provocations, the ritual incitement to escape and subsequent chaining and locking of the prisoner. In this sense and in relation to Grace, Dogville reveals its hypocritical realism and the narrow mindedness of local communities, by definition unable to deal with the arrival of the Other.…”

The Horror of Self-Reflection: The Concealment of Violence in a “Self-Conscious and Critical Society”

“…If we think of the people of Dogville, in Lars von Trier's film, they remain convinced until the end that the excuses they adopt to humiliate their victim, far from being "bullshit," are the only truth. And when Tom invites the victim to speak out her reasons before the community, their first reaction is to maintain that her case adds up to a pack of lies (see, on Dogville, Brighenti 2006). But the situation in which the victim herself is invited to conspire with her perpetrators is a situation in which "deceiver and deceived conspire with one another" (Williams 2005: 156), where it is difficult to establish who is actually the deceiver and who is the deceived.…”

Dogville or an Illustration of Some Properties of General Equilibrium

“…We would hesitate to suggest any particular outcome to which such a (classroom) debate should be steered. 2 In any case, the comparative statics follow those of a market where agents have well-behaved preferences. Both, income and substitution effects, are qualitatively precisely as one would predict and they are shown in vivid pictures.…”

“…For the purposes of economic 2 For an interesting discussion of this question (can 'oppression' be consensual? as he puts it) as well as of the movie's ending that we do not discuss in detail here, see Brighenti (2006). 3 For a discussion on how movies can contribute to philosophical debate, see Livingston (2006).…”