About the Book:
Is a patrimony something we inherit or something we create? Does it mark the continuation of the past or its disappearance? Combining elements of criticism, cultural history and memoir, Patrimonies addresses the questions: How do we take from and give back to those who came before? How have their actions and choices left their mark on us? The motivation for these questions is an awareness of precariousness – of people, places and histories on the brink. This is what gives the essays gathered in this collection their sense of occasion as well as responsibility – to those who came before and those still to come. The outcome is a form of writing alert to the tension between survival and transformation, preservation and appropriation that defines the engagements with our forebears, a form of writing whose goal is not exposition or unveiling, but maintenance: the holding onto what cannot be known about the past.

About the Author:
George Kouvaros is Professor of Film Studies at the University of New South Wales. His work examines how the interactions between different media influenced the nature of artistic experimentation in the postwar period. Recent writings deal with the relationship between photographic media and migration. He has also been published in leading journals such as New German Critique and Screen, and conducted interviews with leading international filmmakers.

Cover image: Georgia Metaxas, Greek Easter Series, Image #1, 2000