The End of the World of the End: Lars von Trierâs Melancholia and Political Theory

Milo Sweedler

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The End of the World of the End: Lars von Trierâs Melancholia and Political Theory

In: A Critical Approach to the Apocalypse

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Milo Sweedler

Milo Sweedler
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 173â184

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848882706_015

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I argue in this chapter that Lars von Trierâs 2011 film Melancholia can be read as an allegory of two contrasting ways of conceiving the end of time. On the one hand, the depiction of the idleness of the characters, a group of wealthy jetsetters whose petty intrigues form the first narrative thread of the film, can be perceived as a portrayal of the âend of history.â This idea of the end of history was initially theorised by Alexandre KojÃ¨ve in his influential lectures on G. W. F. Hegelâs Phenomenology of Spirit, but it is primarily the subsequent elaboration of the idea by Francis Fukuyama in his 1992 manifesto of the post-ideological world of triumphant neoliberalism, The End of History and the Last Man, that will be of interest here. I argue that von Trierâs detailed narration of his charactersâ frivolous adventures and his patient probing into their banal concerns serve to convey the vacuous existence of these super-rich trend setters, who are presented as so many Nietzschean âlast menâ living in a Fukuyaman post-historical paradise. On the other hand, the second narrative thread, involving the imminent demise of the Earth, presents an apocalyptic vision of the end of human time. Although this end of the world, brought about by the collision of a rogue planet with Earth, is presented in von Trierâs film as an arbitrary astrological event, I would suggest that this event can be read symptomatically, almost as a wish fulfilment condensing discontent with the Fukuyaman post-political world and wilfully bringing about its conflagration in vivid colour. If the first narrative thread, which I dub âthe world of the end,â finds its theoretical counterpart in the works of KojÃ¨ve and Fukuyama, the second, which I call âthe end of the world of the end,â finds its theoretical analogue in Walter Benjaminâs notion of divine violence and especially in Slavoj Å½iÅ¾ekâs appropriation of this powerful and provocative Benjaminian category.

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A Critical Approach to the Apocalypse

E-Book ISBN:: 9781848882706

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2013

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The End of the World of the End: Lars von Trierâs Melancholia and Political Theory

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A Critical Approach to the Apocalypse

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The End of the World of the End: Lars von Trierâs Melancholia and Political Theory