The Availability of Jim Jarmusch's Film-Philosophy: Wittgenstein, Derrida and Private Language in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Issue 3 (September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Barrowman, Kyle
• Is Part Of: Film-philosophy. Volume 26:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 352
• Page End: 374
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Subjects: Jim Jarmusch -- Ludwig Wittgenstein -- Jacques Derrida -- Ordinary Language -- Skepticism -- Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai; Cinematography -- Periodicals; Cinematography -- Study and teaching; Journalism -- Philosophy; 791.4305
• DOI: 10.3366/film.2022.0205
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1466-4615

Abstract

Abstract : To date, film scholars have found the films of Jim Jarmusch to be tantamount to works of postmodern philosophy. For as intriguing and productive as such interpretations of Jarmusch's films have been, I submit that the postmodern framework occludes a crucial aspect of Jarmusch's film-philosophy, namely, his investment in the ordinary. From this perspective, I intend to show the availability of Jarmusch's films to Wittgensteinian interpretation. More specifically, I plan to situate Jarmusch's arthouse action film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jacques Derrida in order to demonstrate the profound affinities between Jarmusch's film-philosophy and Wittgenstein's conception of ordinary language. Through a consideration of character dialogue, I will demonstrate the extent to which Jarmusch rejects the private language argument – which, by extension, amounts to a rejection of linguistic relativism as an instance, or species, of skepticism – in favor of ordinary conceptions of language, expressiveness, knowledge, and responsibility.