Intermedial Densities in the Work of Jan Švankmajer: A Media-Anthropological Case Study

Abstract

This chapter suggests that intermediality offers itself as a reinforced sense of intimacy. Dialogue requires to get in ‘touch’ with each other, to share each other's worlds. Based on the writings of Eduardo Viveiros De Castro, and on Giorgio Agamben's notes on gesture, the essay pursues this idea from a media-anthropological perspective in the work of Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer, focusing on three films: The Flat (Byt, 1968), The Ossuary (Kostnice, 1970) and Dimension of Dialogue (Moznosti dialogu, 1982).