Assassin! The Death and Life of Great Teachers in Film and Professional Fantasy

• In Event: Roundtable Session 44
  In Roundtable Session: Narratives of Teachers and Students

Abstract

Following a small but notable collection of studies on the significance of filmic representations of teachers in shaping actual teachers’ identities, this paper considers the death and afterlife of the filmic teacher as it intersects with both longstanding and more contemporary theories of death, askesis, identity and immortality as these relate to the practice of teaching. Based in Socrates’ practice of poetics in Plato’s Phaedo and Lacan’s re-interpretation of Freud’s death instinct, we argue that the life of the teacher predicates itself on a kind of death that inscribes the teacher into the past, providing her with a position of authority that is essential to securing the interests of her students.

Authors

• David F. Jelinek, The Collegiate School

• James Stillwaggon, Iona College