Leiden University Student Repository

Jansen, A.W.A. (2018)

Detachment: melancholia through unconventional time in The Hours (2002) and Melancholia (2011)

Master thesis | Media Studies (MA)

In this thesis I will research the way in which Melancholia and The Hours use unconventional notions of time in order to construct an experience of melancholia which provokes certain views on melancholia. In order to do this, I will first establish what melancholia has meant over the centuries and how it is perceived today. I will also distinguish melancholia from mourning by using Sigmund Freud’s text on ‘Mourning and Melancholia’. Additionally, I will argue how illnesses are used in the arts in order to introduce a character with a certain personality. Later, I will accumulate onto the two films, whereof first The Hours and then Melancholia, specifically focusing on how the state of melancholia is expressed through the unconventional use of time.

melancholia

the hours

depression

film

movie

time

ego

detachment

Author

Jansen, A.W.A.

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Film and Photography Studies

Supervisors

Verstraten, P.W.J.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en