Abstract

The final paragraph of the original 1971 edition of Stanley Cavell’s book The World Viewed has often been read too hastily; it is, as a result, frequently misunderstood. This article consists of a close reading of this one paragraph, correcting some of these misrepresentations and arguing that the juxtapositions of ideas that it presents express persistent themes in Cavell’s work in ways that are worthy of minute attention. The article attempts to show how examining the paragraph’s form and content can illuminate and clarify our understanding of Cavell’s treatment of privacy, fantasy, modernism, mortality, and ontology – in film as well as much more generally.