New Books in Film Book Talk 69: American Medium, with Eyal Peretz
Jan 6, 2026
Eyal Peretz, a Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, dives into the complexities of America's identity through the lens of film. He explores how Hollywood can reimagine America beyond cliché narratives, discussing iconic films like *The Godfather* and *Lost in Translation*. Peretz connects themes of law, identity, and social organization, arguing that these films reflect modern America's search for meaning. He also examines the evolving role of art in a secular age, contrasting fragmentation with cinema's potential to create cohesive narratives.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Art's Shift From Sacred To Placeless
- Modern art shifted from a sacred site pointing to the divine to a decontextualized, placeless object that still seeks a higher meaning.
- Eyal Peretz argues this shift demands a new function for art that neither reduces to pleasure nor to religious reference.
Why The U.S. Calls Itself 'America'
- The United States names itself 'America' to occupy an empty conceptual slot for a new form of collective life.
- Peretz contends America becomes a laboratory where modern art seeks to answer what this new, non-theocratic, non-formal political life could be.
The Orphaned Work As World-Opening
- The modern artwork's placelessness makes it an 'orphan' that points toward the opening of the world rather than a concrete place.
- Peretz uses Heidegger to claim art becomes the site where the question of the whole (the world) is at stake in secular life.
