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Faculty Publication: Associate Professor of East Asian Studies Shiamin Kwa

January 20, 2023

Dead Letters, Epistolary Hauntology and the Speed of Light in Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)

Author: Shiamin Kwa

Source: Epistolary Entanglements in Film, Media and the Visual Arts, edited by Teri Higgins and Catherine Fowler, published by Amsterdam University Press, January 2023

Type of Publication: Chapter in a book

Description: Anything, from an object to a message is never only itself but also a stand-in for the person who has sent it. While the pulsing three dots of the ellipsis in a text message window become a proxy for the state of openness and waiting that preoccupy digital correspondence, for Kwa the text message-as-letter's proclivity for bringing people together, in correspondence, provides Assayas with "an opportunity to consider the limits of an intersubjective experience."

Shiamin Kwa is co-chair and associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures and co-director of comparative literature. 

East Asian Languages and Cultures

Comparative Literature