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Table of contents Introduction 3 Mission 4 Method 4 Theory 5


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Theory conclusion


So far it has become clear to me that the concept of irony is difficult to define upon reading the mentioned theorists’ opinions on the subject. One might even claim that the definition of irony is still to be determined with a general consensus. However, this thesis is not concerned with the definition of irony but rather the meaning and use of it in postmodernism and as a possible aspect of a new movement. According to Paul De Man’s deconstructive view, irony is a form-dissolving figure, which destabilizes a text’s internal structures of signification and reduces the meaning of widely different works to the same skeptical relativization of the chances of communication and in this perspective a text is either ironical or earnest. However, Wayne Booth’s rhetorical and pragmatic approach, argue that irony can be perceived as a local temporary effect that communicates a specific message and does not necessarily destabilize the whole work. Furthermore, it is argued that irony in visual arts may be easier to detect than in literature due to the visual representations of “nudges” which in literature needs to be written elaborately. In the section basis of movement, we see how postmodernism came to surface and in doing that it became apparent how this movement denied an ultimate truth within the sociology, philosophy of Western culture. The notion of this also connects with the characteristics of the Postironical argued by Andersen where there is also a disbelief or criticism of the System as an institution that governs society. However, Andersen noted that there is a difference between the Postmodern and Postironical within this aspect, because the Postironical recognizes that we in fact constitute the System and that our role as victims of this establishment tends to be caused by our own free choices. Of course the most important part of the theory is Tore Rye Andersen’s supposition on The Postironical in which he argues the decreased meaning of irony as a critical tool against the System and the encroachment mainstream culture has reduced irony into. The main task now is to put his theory into practice and analyze two works by the film director Lars Von Trier who Andersen sees as a possible Postironist.

Analysis


In this section I will apply Tore Rye Andersen’s theory on the Postironical within a non-literary text which is film. The main focus of the analysis will be the work of the Danish film film Lars von Trier due to Andersen’s claim that he exhibits strong Postironical traits. According to Andersen, the central argument concerning Trier, is that the most important characteristic of the Postironical – the reckoning with the irony that mainstream culture has taken over from the postmodern rebels and made its own35, is at the same time paradoxically its weakest and most fragile part.

To support this claim you only have to turn to Danish movie director Lars von Trier’s Golden Heart-trilogy, which distances itself from his previous ironical phase. The main problem for this trilogy is that its creator, after ironical and metafictive works such as The Element of Crime and The Kingdom I-II, has a hard time being taken seriously in his attempts to employ a larger degree of pathos in his work.36

Andersen claims that Trier’s Golden Heart-trilogy tends to have a difficult time being taken seriously due to his previous works, which included a large degree of irony and metafictive elements. In Trier’s Breaking the Waves, Andersen does not believe that the church bells at the end are supposed to be ironical, but because of Trier’s ironic history, they tend to be perceived as such or at least forcedly pathetic even though the director employs a greater amount of pathos in the film. On the basis of this I have chosen to analyze two of Lars von Trier’s movies as an attempt to examine Andersen’s belief. The first movie will therefore be Epidemic from 1987, which falls under the category of Trier’s ironical phase. Furthermore, the analysis of this film will also examine the employment and meaning of irony in visual arts as discussed in the theory section. The second film will be Breaking the Waves from 1996, the movie on which Andersen partly bases his argument that Von Trier struggles to be taken seriously and thereby making him a Postironist. It should also be noted that analyzing the mentioned films will be done using some of the theory aspects in Analyse af Billedmedier (2006) by Gitte Rose and H.C. Christiansen with focus on the Neoformalistic film analysis. The reason I have chosen this form is because it functions as a tangible and in film analysis, and is an approach focusing on how film functions as a system consisting of a narrative and stylistic system. Neoformalism concentrates, as the name implies, on the form and is therefore suitable to analyze a film’s fundamental appearance. Furthermore, this method also examines cognitive film theory, which is argued that watching a film is an active perception process.

Filmens plot giver os ’cues’, på baggrund af hvilke, tilskueren kan drage slutninger og dermed skabe en sammenhængende story. (…)cognitive filmteorier gør det muligt ud fra vores viden om menneskets kognitive emotionelle kapaciteter teoretisk at kortlægge, hvordan vi generelt oplever og indlever os i filmens fiktion.37

The aspect of this becomes suitable in connection with the issue Andersen argues about Lars von Trier’s struggle with irony and pathos in film. It should be noted that the Neoformalistic analysis is a theory coined by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson,

David Bordwells og Kristin Thompsons Film Art. An Introduction, udkom første gang I 1979 og har neofomalismen som det understående fundament. (…) Til forskel fra strukturalismen er Bordwell og Thompsons neoformalistiske tilgang målrettet mod analysen af, hvordan filmen som særegent medie anvender narration og stil.38



As such Rose and Christiansen have formed an organized view of their theory. When analyzing a film using the method mentioned above, it is reasonable to do so by dividing the analysis into two sections. The first should be examining the film’s narrative structure, which involves establishing the story, plot, characters, motivations etc. The second section should be an analysis of the film’s stylistic structure, which establishes how the film is portrayed through visual and audible elements. Lastly, the two should then be combined to determine how the two structures function in the specific film. Furthermore, along with the Neoformalistic analysis the characteristics of the Postironical will be taken into account.
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