Leiden University Student Repository

Kahmann, Job (2014)

Reading John Malkovich

Master thesis | Media Studies (MA)

This thesis is an attempt to come to a meaningful reading of the self-reflexive and ironic work Being John Malkovich, by Spike Jonze (dir.) and Charlie Kaufman (script). My lead question is how the structural element of the mise-en-abyme functions within the meaning production process. This structural relation between part and whole is traditionally thought of as a relatively stable synecdoche: a miniature of the whole reflecting its meaning. However, I find that it may also function as a self-reflexive, instable synecdoche: a miniature questioning the very possibility of the work’s meaning production. Traditionally, the first option refers us to the field of hermeneutics, the second to deconstruction. The primary objective of this thesis is to find out how these two reading strategies relate and differ: and how these differences negotiate the boundary between a hermeneutic or a deconstructive mise-en-abyme in Being John Malkovich.

Jonze

Kaufman

Malkovich

mise-en-abyme

PauldeMan

Gadamer

Author

Kahmann, Job

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Film- & Literatuurwetenschap

Supervisors

Boletsi, Maria

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en