A death in the family: meditations on mourning in contemporary cinema

Petousis, Simone

A death in the family: meditations on mourning in contemporary cinema

Master Thesis

2012

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Centre for Film and Media Studies

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

This thesis examines cinematic depictions of traumatic loss and mourning, with particular focus on representation. My study merges a theoretical and analytical investigation. I aim to defend cinema against the wider post-structuralist claim that trauma refutes the possibility of representation and argue, instead, that an increasing array of filmic examples demonstrate cinema's potential to provide valuable insights into the complexities of the subject. I use Freud's discussion of trauma as a belated, repetitious experience as an entry point to illustrate the ways in which cinema, a medium bound to temporality, can develop a relationship between linear and traumatic time...

Description

Includes abstract.

Includes bibliographical references.

Keywords

Film Studies

Reference:

Collections

Masters

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