Bollywood both shapes and is shaped by Indian society and its ideas on gender and nationhood. As such, it engages in the politics of representation as theorised by feminist film scholars. While...Show moreBollywood both shapes and is shaped by Indian society and its ideas on gender and nationhood. As such, it engages in the politics of representation as theorised by feminist film scholars. While extensive literature on the representation of women in Bollywood has arisen in the last two decades, less attention has been put on how rural populations or, more particularly, rural women are represented. This thesis attempts to fill this gap, recognising the invisibilization of rural women in India, especially the agrarian female workers who make up a major part of the national economy and around a fourth of the Indian population. I have used content and discourse analysis techniques on the Bollywood films Lagaan (2001) and Parched (2016) to investigate, firstly, the representation of Indian rural women in Bollywood, secondly the applicability of the theories developed through the literature on Indian women in Bollywood, and lastly, the possible implications of such representations on the visibility of Indian rural women, considering both the content and the reach of the films in the context of contemporary Bollywood. There is a multiplicity of representations of Indian women across Bollywood films, and this also applies for the representation of Indian rural women. In Lagaan, women play side-roles and are defined by their relation to the male characters; they are dedicated daughters, mothers and lovers. In Parched, the rural women are nuanced characters with desires, struggles and the will to fight for their agency in a patriarchal society. Even though the representations in Parched challenge notions of patriarchal and upper-class nationhood, its viewership and therefore the impact of the visibilization Indian rural women is limited to an elite and largely foreign audience, whereas the more patriarchal, but subaltern-perspective film Lagaan has reached Indian masses. Although women centric Bollywood films have been on the rise, a low number of films portray rural Indians and of those only few depict female characters in nuanced ways like done in Parched. This implies that Indian rural women remain largely invisibilized and stigmatized in Bollywood and in the imagination of the nation by the Bollywood audiences. Going forward, middle cinema offers a promising space for critical but still influential films, stimulating larger discussions on class and gender.Show less
Frankenstein’s monster, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), has often been compared to Satan as he appears in the Bible and in John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667/1674). Soyka explains that “the...Show moreFrankenstein’s monster, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), has often been compared to Satan as he appears in the Bible and in John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667/1674). Soyka explains that “the underlying theme [of Frankenstein] is rooted in Miltonic questions about the first creation. If God is the creator of all things, why did He create evil to ruin his creation?” (167). Unsurprisingly, in many modern adaptations of the novel, the monster is presented as a grotesque figure of violence, highlighting its “evil” tendencies. Yet this thesis will foreground how the second of James Whale’s Frankenstein adaptations, Bride of Frankenstein (1935), transforms the original intertextual relations between Shelley’s monster and the figure of Satan in Paradise Lost by alluding directly to the figure of Adam and more implicitly to his companion Eve. The creation of a female monster in this classic film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein highlights the intertextuality of Whale’s monsters with Adam and Eve in Milton’s Paradise Lost, as the female monster presents a link to this Edenic narrative.Show less
This thesis aims to challenge the shortcomings identified in the analysis of transnationally funded non-western cinema shown at the international film festival circuit, which mainly results from...Show moreThis thesis aims to challenge the shortcomings identified in the analysis of transnationally funded non-western cinema shown at the international film festival circuit, which mainly results from framing these films as parts of a ‘National cinema’ and by analyzing them within western frameworks and according to western points of reference. Focusing on Thai films funded by the Hubert Bals Fund over the past 20 years, this thesis offers a contextual approach to modern cinema with a focus on locality and local history. This thesis is an attempt to reduce the gap between the respective fields of Area Studies and Film Studies as well.Show less
Against the broader background of the remembrance culture of the Second Sino-Japanese War in China, I will focus on the depiction of Japan and the Japanese by comparing four movies from different...Show moreAgainst the broader background of the remembrance culture of the Second Sino-Japanese War in China, I will focus on the depiction of Japan and the Japanese by comparing four movies from different moments in time and with different socio-historical contexts, and their reception through various platforms including social media: Tunnel Warfare (Di Dao Zhan地道战) from 1965, Red Sorghum (Hong Gaoliang红高粱) from 1987, Devils on the Doorstep (Guizi Lai Le鬼子来了) from 2000 and The Flowers of War (Jinling Shisan Chai金陵十三钗) from 2011. This thesis asks the following research question: How do depictions of Japan and the Japanese in Chinese films about the Second Sino-Japanese war develop over time?Show less
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
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In this text, I conduct a historical exploration of the theoretical evolution of both the reader in literary studies and viewer in film studies. Spanning from Antiquities right up to contemporary...Show moreIn this text, I conduct a historical exploration of the theoretical evolution of both the reader in literary studies and viewer in film studies. Spanning from Antiquities right up to contemporary criticism, I illuminate their parallel, yet differing, transformations. In both disciplines, the theoretical reader or viewer are initially hypothetical, static, passive entities in object-centric, meaning film or text focused, modes of study. The theory of both film and literary studies eventually evolves to reverse that initial perspective of, and approach to, the relationship of the film or text to its viewer or reader, respectively. Both disciplines follow alternative paths which results in varying nuances and repercussions for their unique conceptions of the reading or viewing subject, the textual or filmic object, and their relation to each other. This work not only explores the evolutions of these disciplines regarding their subject, object, and the relationship thereof, but also examines said variations, nuances, and repercussions encountered to highlight that their greatest divergences stem from their political anchorages. In the end, we achieve a means by which we may draw comparisons between both these two disciplines regarding various conceptions of the reader, viewer, film, and text; enriching the field of Reader(ship), Viewer(ship), and Audience studies by approaching them from a combined perspective.Show less
Domestic servants a ubiquitous feature of Latin American society, they are fully embedded in everyday life and seem invisible in real life and even in visual media. Recently, there has been an...Show moreDomestic servants a ubiquitous feature of Latin American society, they are fully embedded in everyday life and seem invisible in real life and even in visual media. Recently, there has been an increase in the representation of lower classes on screen and domestic servants have more representation, even though it is limited. The attention on the previously ignored is a shift from traditional values and breaks social taboos. The movies La Nana (Sebastian Silva, Chile, 2009) and Que Horas Ela Volta? (Anna Muylaert, Brazil, 2015) focus on these invisible characters and the traditional social oppression of the maid. This thesis provides a cultural study on film narrative and style, covering class, gender and ethnicity differences on the maids in a comparison of La Nana and Que Horas Ela Volta?. These movies aim to present class division in Chile and Brazil with the maid as narrative and make the maid visible. However, this thesis argues that maids are a little visible with their presence in movies, but unheard. The hypothesis is that the movies address the social oppression of domestic servants and although the new identity-forming of lower classes is somewhat broken through, the maid remains a largely invisible, ambiguous, and unrepresented character.Show less
This thesis seeks to analyze the cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul (1970-) by placing it within a context of the history of Thai nationality, borders and geography, specifically focusing on the...Show moreThis thesis seeks to analyze the cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul (1970-) by placing it within a context of the history of Thai nationality, borders and geography, specifically focusing on the region of Isan and its history with and within Thailand. It aims to show how his work subverts the master narrative offered in official media that concerns Thailand as a nation state with a fixed identity and national language and instead gives a voice to marginalized identities by making room for a multitude of experienced realities and stories within Thailand. This thesis is an attempt to reduce the gap between the respective fields of Area Studies and Film Studies as well.Show less
