Faculty Publication: Associate Professor of East Asian Studies Shiamin Kwa
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.