Mitchell, Marilyn

English

Lopes-Curval’s 2009 maternal melodrama, Hidden Diary, representspatriarchal domestic violence as the cause of damaged mother–daughterrelationships across three generations of a family, thereby revising the plot ofthe maternal melodrama. Once this violence is made visible, the women inthe film empathise with one another and reconnect. Hidden Diary is uniquein representing a wide range of controlling behaviours beyond the physicalabuse that some men enact against their partners. The plot relies on feministdiscourses of domestic violence as instrumental and socio-systemic. Thisarticle considers the film through theory about women’s reading of film, therepresentation of women’s culture, discourses of domestic violence, sociallearning theory, attachment theory and issues of single mothering. The authorrecommends using Hidden Diary in gender communication classes to discussdomestic violence and women’s freedom, and in film studies classes todiscuss authentic representations of women who have emerged from thepatriarchy. More such films are needed

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Hidden Diary:Patriarchal domestic violence revealed in a revision of the maternal melodrama

https://pure.bond.edu.au/ws/files/24988125/Hidden_Diary_M_Mitchell.pdf

Hidden Diary:Patriarchal domestic violence revealed in a revision of the maternal melodrama

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