Here is a definition of paraphrase: (1) A rewording of something written or spoken by someone else, esp. with the aim of making the sense clearer; a free rendering of a passage. And here is a paraphrase of the definition of paraphrase: (1a) A restatement of someone else’s writing or speech, particularly to clarify the meaning; an approximate version. Can there be a definition, in turn, of paraphrase (1a)? No: a definition captures the general linguistic potential of a word or phrase, abstracted from any particular statement. A paraphrase reprises a particular statement, as (1a) reprises (1). For the same reason, there cannot be ...

Haneke’s films question not only their characters’ self-knowledge, but also the insistence with which they cling to bodily and mental self-control as their main center of identity. […] By revealing the shallowness of our bodies’ aliveness, they remind us that the stillness and inert compliance of matter is not just something we desire to master, but also something that we fear and deny in ourselves…