Waltz with Bashir

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Waltz with Bashir: between representationand experienceJeanne-Marie ViljoenPublished online: 26 Feb 2014.

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ISSN 0256-0046/Online 1992-6049 pp.40–5028 (1) 2014 © Critical Arts Projects & Unisa PressDOI: 10.1080/02560046.2014.883695

Waltz with Bashir: between representation and experience

Jeanne-Marie Viljoen

AbstractHow to represent extreme, traumatic experience has long been a predicament in social science and literary criticism. This quandary is sometimes dealt with by claiming that such experiences are forgotten or leave their victims claiming they have had experiences that are too horrific to represent. This explanation leads to the position that representation is distinctly different from experience, and indeed insufficient by comparison. Waltz with Bashir (Folman 2008) is a recent text (at once a feature-length animated documentary film and a graphic novel) thatdeliberatelyemploysariotouscombinationof‘languages’ofrepresentationtoprobetheapparent inadequacies of language for representing extreme, traumatic experience. The aim ofthisarticleistoutiliseFolman’stexttochallengethisapparentlyrigiddistinctionbetweenexperience and representation, and demonstrate the possibility of representation standing in for or becoming experience. Profoundly blurring the boundary between experience and representation in this way facilitates a richer explanation of the case of memory loss due to trauma and allows the recouping of some experiences that have previously been thought of as too horrific to represent. As a representation of an experience that he cannot remember, Folman’s text, constituted largely throughothers’ representationsof the sameevents,becomesasubstituteforhisownlostexperience.ThistextbecomesbothFolman’sexperience and his representation of events that were too traumatic for him to integrate at the time of their occurrence (the Lebanese War of 1982). Žižek’s insistence on representation as a necessary part of the experience of violence and the experience of violence as needing to be indirect and inclusive of distance are drawn upon to enrich the explanation of what happens inmemoryloss.Herememorylossafter‘unrepresentable,horrifyingexperiences’isreferredto, where access to experience is usually thought of as hindered by the inadequacies of representation. As such, the representational techniques used in Waltz with Bashir combine to forma lavish literarytrace–somewherebetweenexperienceandrepresentation.Thisenables the construction of an inaccurate and fractured, yet intense and authentic version

Jeanne-Marie Viljoen is currently reading for a doctorate in cultural studies at the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia. [email protected]

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of well-known traumatic events that can be utilised in seeking a meaningful account of these occurrences.

Keywords: experience, memory loss, representation, violence, Waltz with Bashir, Žižek

Waltz with Bashir: between experience and representation

Asananimateddocumentaryandagraphicnovel,1 Waltz with Bashirisanexampleofacontemporarytextthatdeliberatelyattemptstopresentthereader/viewerwithrepresentationsthatallowforanencounterwiththetentativeness,incompleteness,fracturingandsurrealityoftraumainthenarrativecontext.Assuch,itseemstostandsomewherebetweenexperienceandrepresentation.Thenarrativeofthetextfocuseson a ‘real’person,AriFolman,aformerIsraelisoldierwhoapparentlytookpartintheFirstLebaneseWarin1982. WhenFolmanwantedtoleavethearmy,morethan 20yearslater,hefoundthathehadnomemoryatallofthewar,althoughtheIsraeliarmyclaimedhehad takenpart in it.Waltz with Bashir depictshimin searchofhislostmemories.Itoffers,amongother things,acomplexaccountof thenatureofmemory,itsrelationto‘real’timeandspace,otherhumanbeingsand‘realistic’narrativerepresentationsofthesameevents.

Waltz with Bashirusesaremarkabledisplayofwrittenandspokentext,graphicimages, colours, sounds and silences – which refer to reality, dreams and half-consciousmemories–tonarratetheauthor’sexperienceofrepresentinghispossiblehorrificinvolvementintheFirstLebaneseWarandintheensuingSabraandShatilaPalestinianrefugeecampsmassacre.

Ari Folman: between the experiences and representations of others

Waltz with BashirdepictsawarinwhichtheLebanesePhalangistMilitiaperpetratedthenowinfamousSabraandShatilaPalestinianrefugeecampsmassacre–whererape,decapitationandthebodilymutilationofvictims(mostlycivilianPalestinian,SyrianandLebanesewomenandchildren)wereparticularlyprevalent.AriFolman,thefilmmakerandco-authorofthegraphicnovel,wasayoungIsraeliDefenceForceOfficerstationedinBeirutatthetime.Hehelpedigniteilluminativeflaresfiredintothenight sky,whichallowed thePhalangistMilitia tokillwithgreaterprecision.ForFolman,however,thetraumacoagulatesaroundhisassociationofthehorrorofthisincidentwithhisparents’treatmentasAuschwitzvictims.Hissubsequentflashof identificationwith the perpetrators of his parents’miserymakes themassacretootraumaticforhimtorecall,andinitiallyalsotoohorrifictorepresent.Folmanovercomesthisconundrumofhavingexperiencedsomethingthatis‘lost’tohimby

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representingitthroughthenarrativesofothers.Hedoesthisbymeansofanintricateoverlaidtrace,untilhisrepresentationbecomeshisexperience–anexperiencethathecanintegratetosomeextent.SuccinctlydescribinghowtheplotofFolman’sfilmismadeupoftheexperiences

andrepresentationsofothers,RazYosef(2010:311)writes:

The film is an animated documentary – an animation based on documentary videofootage – comprised of conversations that Folman conducted with friends andjournalistswhotookpartinthewar,aswellaswithpsychologistswhospecializeinpost-traumaticstressdisorderandwho tried tohelp thefilmmaker reconstruct thosemissingdaysfromhisdistantpast.

Thefilmmakesliberaluseofthetechniqueofanimatingrealimagesofinterviews,battles,authenticconversationsandarchivedphotographsofthemassacrecapturedonvideo(ratherthanrotoscoping2).Initsfinalscenes/pages,theanimationintheWaltz with Bashir textgivesway

to journalistRobertMoyer’s jarring,stillphotographsofmassacredcorpses lyinginpoolsofbloodandtheexcruciatingpainonthefaceofafemalesurvivorwho,oneassumes,witnessedthisscene.ThesephotographsattheendofFolman’s textformpartofRonBenYishai’s3archivalfootagetakenofthemassacreshortlyafteritoccurred(Ginsburg2009).In her enthralling book on Lebanese cinema, Lina Khatib (2008: 153) notes

thathistoryalwaysconsistsofahybridofpublicandprivateknowledgeand that‘publicandprivaterecollectionsbothoftenworktogether toformwhat isknownascollectivememory’.Shepointsoutthatoneofthecrucialimplicationsofthisisthatourknowledgeofhistoryandourmemoriesmustthusnecessarilybecomposedofgapsandinaccuracies.Thisisbecausesomeexperiencesofwarandconflictaredisallowedbypopularmemory,andthusareneverrecognisedaspartofthe‘reality’of theconflict (Khatib2008).Waltz with Bashirallowsus toexperience this ideafromFolman’sperspective.ItisarecordofhowFolman’sownmemoryandrealityhavebeenmadeupofotherpeople’smemoriesandrecordingsofhistory.Folmanfillsthegapsinhisownmemorynotbyrememberingeverythinghimselfagaininaseriesofexpedientflashbacks,butbyinsertingpartsofotherpeople’sprivateandcollective narratives into his own, andmaking them part of his own experience.Withoutthis‘language’hisexperienceofeventsisunavailabletohim,andforgottenbyhim.

Representational ‘languages’: between fantasy and reality

In the text theauthorexplicitlysetsupaconnectionbetween therepresentationallanguages of dream and memory, fantasy and reality. The author shows himselfconversingwithafriendwho,hesuspects,mayhavesharedhisexperiencesinthe

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warwithhim,despitethefactthatthefriendcannotrememberanythingofthewareither.Folmanbaseshissuspicionsonthefactthatheisdisturbedbyrecognisingtheyouthful faceofhis friend ina sepia imageof them swimmingnaked in theMediterraneanSeainBeirut.Folmanisunabletocategorise thishauntingimageas fantasy,dreamor reality.DespiteFolman’s inability toremember thewar, thefriend states that both then andnow,his (the friend’s) representations of thewarhavealwaysbeenconstructedof‘escape[s]intosleepandfantasies’ (FolmanandPolonsky2009:22).Thisrepresentationdemonstratesthattheboundarybetweendreams,memories,

desires,fantasies,consciousnessand‘whatreallyhappened’canremainunresolved– suspended somewhere between experience and representation. This occursthroughoutthetextandisespeciallynoticeablewhentherepresentational‘language’ofsurrealismisused.Aneffectofrepresentingexperienceintermsofsurrealvisualsinthecreationofananimatedorcomic-bookdocumentaryistocreatethefeelingofanoticeablydreamlike,drug-inducedorseemingly‘unreal’ anddisturbingstructuralqualityinthenarrative.The surreal is inexact, splintered,uncertain, incongruent and surprising.Waltz

with Bashirisawarringtextthatentersthefiercefraybetweenrepresentationandexperience,andheavesoutcontrastingmeanings.Ontheonehand,thecombinationof the slow-moving gait of the characters in thefilm, the unrealistic colours, thesometimesout-of-placesoundtrackandtheoccasionalsuddenjumpsbetweenframesgivethevieweradistinctly‘unreal’experience.Ontheotherhand,therecognisablecityscapesofBeirutduringtheperiod,thetranscriptsof‘real’sessionsthatFolmanhad with his psychologist (a known expert on trauma), statements by notoriouspoliticiansandanaccountofthesameeventsbytherenownedjournalist,RonBenYishai,allhelptocreateanimpressionofauthenticity,especiallygiventhatBenYishaiwasthefirstjournalisttobeallowedintotheSabraandShatilacampsafterthemassacre.The effect of emphasising the surreal along with the real is to foreground the

enduringly confusing and fluid quality of both experience and representation,ratherthantoclarifytherelationshipbetweenrealandrememberedeventswithanyprecision.Intermsofstorytelling,theviolentcontentoftheWaltz with Bashirnarrativeprovidesavaluablesitefromwhichtoprobetherelationshipbetweenexperienceand representation. It repeatedly demonstrates that experience and representationareco-dependentandoftenalsoco-incident,especiallyincaseswheretraumahasbeen forgotten and subsequent representation and reflection become experience.Following Cathy Caruth (1995), RazYosef (2010: 317) writes that trauma thuspresents ‘a crisis of knowledge and representation’. In this way, thememory oftraumaandviolencespectacularlycallsintoquestiontheofteninterwovencategoriesofunderstanding,suchas‘memory’,‘representation’,‘dream’,‘desire’, ‘fantasy’,

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‘consciousness’ and ‘experience’. These categories are constantly intertwinedandrespunbyFolmaninhisnarrativeandcontributetoanotionofexperienceasconfusing,inconclusiveandrepresented,yetintenseandgenuine.ErnstvanAlphen(1999:24)putsforwardasomewhatsimilarpositioninhisassertionthatexperienceis composedofdiscourse, althoughheclaims thatmanyexperiences remain toohorribletorepresentandthusfailasexperiences.Folmanseemstomanufactureanotionofexperienceandrepresentationthatcanaccommodatesuchfailureaswellas a certain intensity – an interstitial zonewhere experience and representationseem,tosomeextent,tomerge.InWaltz with Bashir,therepresentationofambiguous(andoftensurreal)aspects

suchasmemories,dreamsanddesiresservestobreakdownthebinaryoppositionbetween representation and experience, and suggests that representation andexperiencearemutuallydependentor,atleast,necessarilycoalesce.Thissuggeststhatthefullqualityofexperiencethattheauthorsostrugglestorepresentdoesnotpre-existexperience,butisinherentintherepresentationoftheexperienceitself,justasthestruggletorepresentis.

Žižek: between the visible and the invisible

That fact thatWaltz with Bashir accessesabreach in theboundarybetween theexperienceofviolenceanditsrepresentationmakesitanidealcandidatefortheapplicationofSlavojŽižek’s(2008)theoryofobjectiveviolence,aspropoundedin his six sideways glances at the topic.According to Žižek, violence may bedivided into subjective (orvisible)violenceandobjective (or invisible)violence.Theformermanifestsasthosecasesmostobviouslyseen(andoftenshownbythemedia)inincidencesofwarandconflictreportage.Strikingly,hereferstoobjectiveviolenceastheinvisibleviolencelurkinglikeanunapproachablebackdroptovisibleviolence.According toŽižek, invisible, objective violence is amenacing systemwhich, if unchecked, perpetuates visible violence. He proposes coming to gripswith invisible violence in order to intervene imaginatively in the never-endingcycleofwarviolence,andsuggeststhatthebestwaytoaccesstheinvisiblerealmisthroughtheindirectmethodofexploringartandaesthetictracesofsuchviolence.According to Žižek, employing an indirectmethod of observation allows one toavoidthemystificationofthecommon-sensemethodoflookingdirectlyatobviousviolenceinawaythatkeepsmaskingwhatmustremainindistinct.Thustheindirectmethodparadoxicallybringsus closer to theobject of investigation, but changesthegoaloftheinvestigation,whichisnolongerclarity.Accordingtohimitisonlybypreservingthislackofplainnessandacceptingthatrepresentationisanintegralpartoftheexperienceofviolence,thatonecanbegintoaccessthezoneofinvisible,objectiveviolence.

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Waltz with Bashir: between representation and experience

ExploringWaltz with BashirthroughthisŽižekianlensallowsonetoclaimthesignificance of blurring the boundary between experience and representation, inordertomorecloselyrepresentandexperienceviolence.Italsoassistsindescribingwhatitmightmeantobe‘betweenexperienceandrepresentation’inthiscontext.Itintimatesthattohavethepotentialtosignificantlyinterveneinitscontext,Waltz with Bashirshouldrepresentexperiencethat isnecessarilydistant, inaccurateandindirect,yetsimultaneouslyspectacularlyvisible,intimateandtangible.Waltz with Bashirisatextfraughtwithsuchtensions.Itatonceprovidesastrikinglyclose-upandpoignant encounterwith theLebaneseWar,while providing a self-consciouslook at the perspective of the author inwhat sometimes looks like a struggle tosuperimposehimselfonthe‘outside’eventsheistryingtoownandmakesenseof.Also, probing the relationship between the experience and representation of

violenceinthiswayallowsforaricherdescriptionofcaseswherememoryhasbeen‘lost’duetotrauma,orexperiencesare‘lost’becausetheyaresohorrendoustheycannotberepresented.Accordingtothisviewonedoesnotmerelyhavetowritetheseexperiences off as inaccessible and ‘unrepresentable’, or to brand representationas hopelessly inadequate. It is possible to recapture these ‘lost’ memories andexperiences in the zonewhere theboundarybetweenmemoryand representationis indistinct.This iswhere experience is accepted as necessarily being inclusiveof representation, andwhere indirectness and intensity, inaccuracy and visibility,distanceandintimacyallcoalesceinadynamicconglomeration.

Photography: between presence and absence

In its final scenes/pages, the animation in theWaltz with Bashir text gives waytoRobertMoyer’s archival photographs of the Sabra and Shatila refugee campsmassacre.ThesearethetypeofphotographsthatŽižekclaimsareoftenemployedin documenting the visible violence of war. Interspersed amongst animated anddrawnimages,thesearchivalphotographsshocktheviewerintoreality.Yet,RolandBarthes (2000)warns that photography is not such a direct and realistic formofrepresentation as itmay seem, and is still interpreted by the reader/viewer: it isdecodedbythereader/viewerasoneofastockofalreadyestablishedrepresentations,anditrepresentsanartificiallydiscretemomentinthelifeoftheobject.Heclaimsthatphotographyfunctionsin‘thatinstant,howeverbrief,inwhicha

realthinghappenedtobemotionlessbeforetheeye’(ibid:59).Stillphotographicimagesareunlikethemovingimagesofcinema:incinema,thereferentmovesinfrontoftheeyeanddoesnotremain‘thereforever’,but‘issweptawayanddeniedbythecontinuousseriesofimages’thatkeepassailingtheeye(ibid.).Thisappearstoemphasisetheabsenceoftheoriginalexperiencefromphotographicimages,ratherthanthecontinuingpresencenecessarilycontainedinthem.

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Afurthernuancetothisinsightisprovidedintheinterpretationthataphotographmaybeseenasatrace(orthecontinuingpresence)oftherealentitythathasbeen.Indeed, as JudithButler (2009:97) remarks aboutBarthes’ argument in ‘Cameralucida’, ‘[t]hephotograph relays less thepresentmoment than theperspective…ontheabsolutepastnessof life’.In thissensewarphotographs,forall theirstarkgore,functionastracesofabsenceandarestillastartlinglyindirectrepresentationof reality, and one that necessarily gestures towards its own incompleteness anddistance.Photographyisalanguageofrepresentationwithanintimateconnectiontoexperience,butitstillcarrieswithinitadistanceandanindirectness.Whenframedinthisway,eventherepresentationallanguageofphotographyhasthepotentialtoreachtheinvisible,becausetherepresentational‘language’ofphotographyseemstobeadistinctivemixofexperienceandrepresentation.Thereasonforthisisthatitisoftenseenasdirectandobjectiveevidence,especiallyinthecontextofwarandconflictthatparadoxicallyonlyallowsittocapturethevisible,subjectiveviolencethat Žižekmentions.Forthisreasontheincomplete,perspectival,absent,indirect,distant and invisible inwhat a photograph represents should receive some focuswhenconsideredasa‘language’ofrepresentation.PlacingtheseknownimagesinthecontextofFolman’srepresentationemphasises

theirpresenceasdistinctrepresentationsintheirownright.ItalsoservestohighlighttheconstructednatureofFolman’s experienceand shows that in this instancehewhollyreliesonpre-existingrepresentationstoconstructhisownpersonalexperience.Also,thesereal,photographed‘objects’withinthecontextofananimatedfilmmeanthattheimagesnowformpartofamovingsequence. Assuch, theysimultaneouslyforegroundtheopposite,thestarkabsence,thedeathandstillnessoftheir‘objects’ofreference.Thisharshjuxtapositionofapparentpresenceandabsencehasaforcefullyunsettlingeffectontheviewer,andassuchisanotherexampleofhowthe‘language’ofrepresentationemployedinWaltz with Bashirbecomespartoftheexperienceoftheeventsitconveys.

Film: between meta and material

Waltz with Bashir is a story of a real war and of authentic, horrific experiencesrepresentedthroughstillandmovingdrawings,whichareobviouslynotfactualoraccurateaccounts.Describingtheeffectofhorrorontheexperienceoftheviewer,VivianSobchack

(2009: n.p.) coins the notion of oblique space to describe that moment, whilewatchingafilm,whenonebecomesawareofone’s‘“newness”and“hereness”inthetheateraswellastheassaulton[one]fromthescreen’.ThissuggeststhatfilmisarepresentationthatisbothdirectandindirectintheŽižekiansense.Sobchackdescribestheexperienceoftheviewerbeinginthisobliquespaceinwhichoneisbothawareofthe‘unreality’ofthefilmandthebodilyrealityofthecontentofthefilm.

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Waltz with Bashir: between representation and experience

WithregardtoWaltz with Bashir,Sobchack’sexplanationoftheviewer’sexperienceofthefilmcanbeusedtoemphasisethatFolman’sfilmfacilitatesexperiencinginawaythatallowsonetoengageinameta-analysisoftheprocessofrepresentation,aswell as the intensity of the content of the horrific events beingwatched.Theviewermay be said to enter Sobchack’s oblique space throughFolman’s chaoticandvariedrepresentationallanguages,andmaythussimultaneouslyexperienceboththefilm’smetaandmaterialreality.Thiscreatesasituationwhereexperienceandrepresentationmaybedescribedasco-incident.

Animated documentary: between subject and object

Although Sobchack (1992) claims that film in general is a unique form ofrepresentation−preciselybecauseitseemstocapturerealitywhilesimultaneouslybeing perceived as mediating reality – the burgeoning collection of animateddocumentary films about trauma (see note 1) goes even further. These animateddocumentaryfilmsseemparadoxicallytoshowthatthesubjective,thestrange,thefractured, theconfusing, thepersonal, the inaccurateand thedistant, represented,indirectandnarrated,areallcrucialtotheexperienceofviolence.Anunderstandingofanimateddocumentaryasarepresentationalformpivotsonthe

relationshipbetweenrepresentationandreality.Assuch,theanimateddocumentaryis anestablishedgenreand from ‘earlyon, animationwas seen tohaveauniquerepresentationalfunctionforthenon-fictionalmovingimage,onethatcouldnotbefulfilled by the conventional live-action, photographic-based alternative’ (HonessRoe2011:219).Recently,anumberofanimateddocumentaries,inadditiontoWaltz with Bashir,wereproducedtorepresenttrauma(forexample,Farkas’The illustrated AuschwitzandYadin’sSilence).Thedefinitionof theanimateddocumentary,asagenrewhichisabletorepresentwhatlive-actionimagescannot,ispertinent.Thisis because onemay already have seen somany live-actionwar films, accuratelydepictingwarandleavingastockofnow-establishedphotographicimagesinone’smind,thattheoriginalsignificanceofsuchsignsisnolongerwhollygrasped.Thus,asAnabelleHonessRoe(ibid:217)states,the‘animateddocumentarybroadensanddeepenstherangeofwhatwecanlearnfromdocumentaries’.Thisisbecauseitcanshowsubjectivestatesofmind,thatarenotfilmable,asiftheywerepartofreality.Inthismanner,thedocumentaryisabletocapturewhatisinvisibletolive-actionfilms,andtoestablishcontactwiththeinvisible.

Comics: between words and images

PartofFoucault’sanalysisoftherelationshipbetweenexperienceandrepresentationiscapturedinhisassertionthatwhenonespeaksofextremeexperience,itisdonesothatitwillnotbefullyrealised,orsothatitcanberealisedinawayinwhichitcan

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bedealtwithorsuccessfullyexperienced.Thus,accordingtoFoucault(1977:54),werepresentdisastersinlanguage‘sothattheirfulfilmentwillbeavertedinthedistanceofwords’.ThisimpliesthattheindirectnesswhichŽižeksuggestsissuchanecessarypartofexperience,maybesoughtintherepresentationallanguageofwords.If the representational language of images provides a more direct link to

(extreme)experiencethanotherrepresentationallanguagesdo,itisimperativethatthese imagesofviolencebecoupledwithwords– if theyare tofacilitateaccesstotheinvisibleandtoescapethemystificationofthedirect. Žižek(2008)claimsthatitisoftenthemedia’simage-richportrayalofexclusivelyvisibleviolencethatconceals the objective, invisible violence seething below the surface, andwhichshouldreceiveattention.Theimplicationhereisthatcombiningtherepresentationallanguageofwordsandimages,ornotsolelyusingimagestoreporttheviolenceofwar,couldassisttheviewerinaccessinginvisibleviolence,ratherthanlockinghim/herinastateofperpetuallyonlyinterveningonthevisiblelevel.Folmandoesnotconfinehimself to representingextremeexperiencessolelyin

his narrative in drawings or photographs, but skilfully combines these with therepresentational languageofwords.Consider, forexample, thedrawn imageofapileofcorpses,viewedthroughagapintherubble.Thelastimageinthegraphicnovel,italsofeatureswords,beforethenarrativegiveswaytoaseriesofwordlessimages,depictedvariouslyasrealisticandunrealistic.ThisimageiscoupledwithRonBenYishai’s actualwords,which he claims to have usedwhile having hisexperience, ‘and then it came overme:what I was looking at was amassacre’inwhichhe representshisexperience (FolmanandPolonsky2009:113). In thisinstance,BenYishai’srepresentationseemstobeco-incidentwithhisexperience,oratleastseemstofillouthisexperienceandmakeitwhatitis.NicolettaVallorani (2009:445)putsforwardanaccountofhowthetraditionof

warreportagereliesonimagestocarrymeaning‘directly’ tothesubject:

The tradition of conflict reportage heavily relies on images….Wordsonwars arenormallycoupledwithimagesthataresupposedtoprovidethepublic(readersand/oraudience)withamorepreciseandreliableperceptionoftheconditionsofwar.

Vallorani’spresentationoftheargumentthatimages,ratherthanwords,seemtoprovidemoredirectaccess toexperience, issimilar toBarthes’(1977)assertionthatwordsareparasitic,thattheytryunsuccessfullytointensifyaccesstomeaning.Both of these arguments, however, run counter to Žižek’s, namely that indirectrepresentationisanessentialpartofexperiencebecauseitfacilitatesaccesstotheotherwiseinvisible.What isparticularly incisive and relevant forFolman’s storyisBarthes’ (ibid:

30,emphasis in theoriginal)comment that ‘inphotographythe trauma iswhollydependentonthecertaintythatthescene“really” happened:the photographer had

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to be there’. In view of this proclamation Folman’scase is remarkable, since hefinds himself in the predicament that he has nomemory of being there and thushasnolanguagewithwhichtorepresenttohimselfthathewasthereorwasevenindirectlypresent.Inthisinstance,memoryfailsasasystemwithwhichtorepresentexperience.Other languagesofrepresentation– thecombined languageofwordsandimages–becomenecessarytoincarnatetheindirectlinkbetweenFolmanandhisexperience,andFolmanandhisrepresentation,wherehisrepresentationandhisexperienceareco-incident.

Conclusion(s)

Representationisaninextricablepartofexperience,andexperienceisaninextricablepartofrepresentation.Experienceandrepresentationaremutuallyconstrainedandinhabited.ThetextWaltz with Bashirisarepresentationofitsauthor’sinvolvementinviolentexperienceswhichheinitiallyfoundtootraumatictorepresent,andhisexperienceoftheseevents.However,theauthor’srepresentationoftheseeventsstands in for his lost memory of this violence and becomes his experience oftheseevents.Hisrepresentationandexperiencearethusco-incidentandmutuallydefining.Itisinthisinterstitialspacewheretheboundarybetweenexperienceandrepresentation falls away that the author is able to accesswhatwas previouslyinvisible.Thearticlehasanalysedthisin-betweenspaceandthemultiplelanguagesofrepresentationthatprovideaccesstothisrealm.It is imperative toconsiderŽižek’sargument, that it isonlybyaccessing the

invisiblerealmofsubjectiveviolencethatonemayarrest theperpetualcycleofviolence.Žižekclaimsthataccesstothisinvisiblerealmisbestfacilitatedthroughindirect formsof representation that eschew themystifying force of directness.Onlyafterescaping from theerroneousand fruitlessburdenofprovidingdirectaccesstoone’sexperiencesonlythroughall-too-ofteninadequaterepresentationsof them,doesonebegin to realise that representation isanessentialpartof theexperience of violence. This understanding enables one to represent whatmayhithertohavebeenthoughtofasunrepresentable.

Notes1 Agraphicnovel is a longfictionalworkwithcomiccontent,butwhich isnot a

comics periodical.McCloud (1994: 20) defines comics as juxtaposed pictorial and otherimages in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or cause an aestheticresponseinthereader/viewer.

2 Rotoscopingisanold-fashionedanimationtechniquepredatingtheextensiveuseofcomputersinanimation.Itwasgenerallyusedtoaddatouchofrealismtoanimatedsequencesandwasaprocessinwhichanimatorstracedover(oftenliveaction)footageprojectedontoafrostedglasspanel,whichwasthenre-drawnbytheanimator.

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3 BenYishai, arguably Israel’s most celebratedmilitary correspondent, is also acharacterinFolman’stext.

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