Wounds of the Past: Andrei Tarkovsky and the Melancholic Imagination

Abstract

This chapter provides a psychoanalytically-inflected analysis of the complex nature of Tarkovsky’s melancholia as the predominant affect in his films, functioning as a poetic critique of the reality principle, eschewing our symbolic separation from the Thing. Engaging with the theories of melancholia developed by Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Julia Kristeva, the authors trace its various configurations in Tarkovsky’s last three Soviet films: Solaris (1972) exhibits the melancholic clinging to the impossible past brought about by narcissistic withdrawal and interminable mourning; Mirror (1974) dramatizes the impossible return to a pre-symbolic childhood; the story of Stalker (1979) circulates around the unknown that grounds the world of the melancholic.