Leiden University Student Repository

Hout, Joyce Anping van den (2019)

A Reading of Big Eyes (Tim Burton, 2014) and Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009) in Relation to Barthes’ and Foucault’s Theories of the Author.

Master thesis | Media Studies (MA)

In this thesis I will give a reading of the films Big Eyes (Tim Burton, 2014) and Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009), in which authorship is addressed or at stake. Burton’s film is about the female painter Margaret Keane and Campion’s film is about the last three years of the life of the poet John Keats (1795-1821) For my analyses I will use Foucault and Barthes’ theories of the author as starting point because their theories are, especially in certain circumstances, such as in the case of female authorship, still relevant today. The overall research question of my thesis is: ‘when or in what circumstances are the theories of Foucault and Barthes relevant, and when are they not relevant?’

Barthes

Foucault

Authorship

"author-function"

Big Eyes (Tim Burton

2014)

Bright Star (Jane Campion

2009)

Author

Hout, Joyce Anping van den

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Cultural Analysis: Literature and Theory

Supervisors

Alphen, Ernst J. van

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en