Remember the medium! : film, medium specificity, and response-dependence

Medium specificity is a theory, or rather a cluster of arguments, in aesthetics that rests on the idea that media are the physical material that makes up artworks, and that this material contains specific and unique features capable of 1) differentiating media from one another, and 2) determining the aesthetic potential and goals of each medium. As such, medium specificity is essential for aestheticians interested in matters of aesthetic ontology and value. However, as Noël Carroll has vehemently and convincingly argued, the theory of medium specificity is inherently flawed and its many applications in art history ill-motivated. Famously, he concluded that we should ‘forget the medium’ entirely. In this thesis, I reject his conclusion and argue that reconstructing a theory of medium specificity, while taking Carroll’s objections into account, is possible. To do so, I offer a reconceptualization of the main theoretical components of medium specificity and ground this new theory in empirical research. I first redefine the medium not as the physical material that makes up artworks but as sets of practices – not the material itself but how one uses the material. I then show that what makes media specific and unique is not certain physical features, but the human responses, which can be empirically investigated, to the combination of practices that constitute media. This relation is one of response-dependence, albeit of a novel kind, which I develop by appealing to social metaphysics. The resulting theory is more complex but also much more flexible and fine-grained than the original and provides insight into a variety of current aesthetic theories

Exploring Intersemiotic Translation Models -- A Case Study of Ang Lee’s Films

Roman Jakobson’s notion of intersemiotic translation provides an opportunity for translation studies scholars to respond to the broad move from the dominance of writing to the dominance of the medium of the image. Due to the linguistic bias of translation studies, however, intersemiotic translation has yet to receive systematic attention. The present research is thus designed to respond to this under-discussed and yet growing phenomenon in the age of digitalization and aims to contribute an understanding of intersemiotic translation by focusing on the case of film as one of the most notable instances of intersemiotic translation. Though intersemiotic translation enables film to be discussed through the prism of translation studies, past research in this area, which perceives film as a transmission from verbal signs to non-verbal signs, oversimplifies the mechanism of film-making. This comes at a price, however, since the researchers neglect the fact that other parameters of film language, such as cinematography, performance, setting and sound are governed by audio-visual patterns that are included in film’s other prior materials. To remedy this deficiency, a rigorous investigation of these audio-visual patterns has been carried out, and answers are provided for the research question: How do intersemiotic translators translate? In this dissertation, these quality-determining audio-visual patterns are considered as the film-maker’s intersemiotic translation models, which provide translation solutions for verbal text segments in the screenplay. Using elements from Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory and Rey Chow’s theory of cultural translation, a multi-levelled system of intersemiotic translation is proposed, comprised of a hierarchy of two levels: cultural and semiotic. In this system, each intersemiotic translation model is considered to be the result of a cross-level combination that relates to a specific type of semiotic system within a specific cultural system, employed in one or several parameters of film ‘language’. These intersemiotic translation models and their functions are explored through case studies of three of Ang Lee’s films, namely, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lust, Caution, and Life of Pi

An examination of the emotional impact of the insertion of documentary footage into trauma cinema

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.This thesis proposes that trauma cinema fiction films based on true dramatic events stand to gain much from utilising specific nonfiction material in their staged narratives and, furthermore, enhance emotional affect for the spectator. It deploys David Bordwell’s and Kristin Thompson’s (2017) formalist film theory to textually analyse a range of films, while also considering the dialogue between journalistic approaches and contemporary critical reviews of the films examined. The aim of this study is to show that there are similarities between certain films in the embedding and utilisation of documentary footage within the narratives of these films and that the footage has the ability to invite an emotional response in audiences, depending on certain personal factors and conditions. In general, previous work in Film Studies links actuality in feature films to greater emotional affect but does so epidermically. In other words, it fails to examine how footage which is real and not staged affects the emotional dynamics of the narratives in which it is inserted. The focus of this study is specifically on the 9/11 sub-genre where, arguably, the utilisation of actuality material in these films is a useful technique for encouraging an emotional response. Three films belonging to the 9/11 sub-genre of trauma cinema are examined in this work where there are certain commonalities of theme and style. These are World Trade Center (Stone, 2006), United 93 (Greengrass, 2006) and Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow, 2012). There is also an emergent pattern in the way that actuality footage is deployed within the three films’ narratives, namely through props such as television sets, which appears to influence how the associated nonfiction content is relayed. Arguably, this delivery of the footage is more easily assimilated by audiences familiar with this initial mode of communication of the events of 9/11. Theoretically, the results produced mean that filmmakers can utilise documentary inserts in the same effective way as other emotion-eliciting cinematic devices, such as close-ups, cut zoom ins, and poignant non-diegetic music, to augment the narrative engagement of the spectator and to enhance the experience. In summary, this thesis contributes to knowledge in that it identifies possible usage of documentary inserts in the narratives of feature films not previously considered and suggests ways in which the emotional potential of these inserts can be exposed therein. It therefore provides a new way to think about calibrating the emotional barometer of these films through heightening the realism of their storylines by making use of documentary insert

Contemporary African Cities in Postmillenial African Films

This study discusses postmillennial cinema narratives from six African cities: Cairo, Monrovia, Nairobi, Kinshasa, Luanda and Johannesburg. It argues that filmic representations of street life in these cities is an act of self-narration and that it indexes consciousness of Africa’s postmillennial urban citizenship. Within these films, the street is shown as a frontier as well as a shared space that enables the conversation of citizenship narratives in those respective cities. The research straddles two main disciplinary areas: urban social theory and film theory. Basing my arguments on the way Africa’s urban cinematic representations may be comprehended as a blend of both the cinematic form and urban citizenship discourse, I assert that such entanglement is most vivid in the images of the street which, I argue, perform three main roles: exposé, reportage and archival

Literary Practices and the Curriculum Context: Exploring the Production of Assignments in a South African Vocational Higher Education Institution

This thesis explores curriculum construction and the production of assignments in two courses at a vocational higher education institution in South Africa, namely Film and Video Technology and Graphic Design. The influence of the vocational curriculum context on student and lecturer practices is examined through two analytical frameworks, literacy as social practice and Bernstein's concept of recontextualisation. An ethnographic methodology was used to investigate the broader curriculum context and literacy practices engaged in by students and lecturers. Fieldwork was carried out over a six-month period, while generating and collecting fieldnote, interview, documentary and photographic data. The analysis is presented as two separate case studies, one in each department. The study's interpretive approach is used to bring together the Bernstein focus on recontextualisation and curriculum with the Academic Literacies notion of literacy practice. The significant role of the curriculum context in the patterning of the literacy practices students engage in when producing their assignments is therefore recognised. The findings highlight the way the university of technology sectoral domain operates as a third aspect in the recontextualisation process alongside the professional and disciplinary domains, resulting in conflicting messages. Primacy is given to texts and literacy practices that resemble those in the professional domains. However, essayist literacies are also foregrounded and reflect generic and decontextualized understandings of writing that function as an important mechanism through which the sectoral domain asserts its position in the academy. The research demonstrates that the Academic Literacies and Bernsteinian frames can successfully be combined in empirical research, allowing the individual students' experiences to be located within broader institutional and sectoral structures in a way that challenges deficit views of the student. A further conclusion drawn is how an Academic Literacies lens can help to identify the workings of the sectoral domain thus broadening the analytical frame beyond individual institutional conditions

The Gulf War Aesthetic? Certain Tendencies in Image, Sound and the Construction of Space in Green Zone and The Hurt Locker

This thesis argues that the perception of realism and ‘truth’ within narrative feature films set within the Gulf War (1990-1991) and Iraq War (2003-2011) is bound up in other transmedia representations of these conflicts. I identify and define what I describe as the Gulf War Aesthetic, and argue that an understanding of the ‘real life’ of the war film genre through its telling in news reportage, documentary and combatant-originated footage serves as a gateway through which the genre of fictional feature films representing the conflicts and their aftermath is constructed. I argue that the complexity of the Iraq War, coupled with technological shifts in the acquisition and distribution of video and audio through online video-sharing platforms including YouTube, further advanced the Gulf War Aesthetic. I identify The Hurt Locker (Bigelow, 2009) and Green Zone (Greengrass, 2010) as helpful case studies to evidence these changes, and subject both to detailed analysis. I draw an alignment of the creative practice of film practitioners involved in the case studies with a detailed, intrasoundtrack analysis of the scenes they discuss. In The Hurt Locker, I demonstrate that this presents itself in an unusual unification of film sound with image, where sound recording and design, in addition to the deployment of music, operate to communicate the components of a narrative specific to the story of bomb disposal. I contrast this with Green Zone, where I argue that the Gulf War Aesthetic is limited by the deployment of more conventional characteristics of the war film genre. This analysis reveals that transmedia contexts of production are operating and how new aesthetics are being reified and codified in cinema. I evaluate the subsequent impact of this outside the specific genre of the war film, particularly in terms of a shift in the way in which spectacle is presented

An ideological analysis of the construction of the young female action hero as feminist hero in The Hunger Games film franchise

Young female action heroes have recently stepped into the limelight as commercial celebrations of Girl Power in Hollywood action-adventure films. Feminist films studies however have shown that these independent, tough female heroes claimed as feminist, are still constrained in various ways through stereotypical gender roles within the action-adventure genre. This thesis examines these claims through the ideological analysis of the young female action hero Katniss in The Hunger Games film franchise. Building on existing research on female action heroes, the research asks: ‘to what degree can the claim of Katniss as boundary-breaking, feminist hero be validated’? This question is addressed through a textual analysis of the four films of The Hunger Games film franchise, employing conventions of action-adventure genre, narrative analysis, mise-en-scène and cinematography to unmask the characterisation of the female hero. The discussion of the findings, utilising the themes of Love, Violence and Power, reveal both progressive and regressive elements present in the characterisation of Katniss. The findings indicate that while female action heroes can be celebrated for displaying progressive moments of liberated action, they remain constrained within dominant heteronormative gender roles in commercial Hollywood films, undergoing various acts of transformation and recuperation as a means of containing the threat of their transgressive behaviour