Inflected accounts and irreversible journeys

Selfe, M. (2008) Inflected accounts and irreversible journeys. Participations, 5(1),

Abstract

In 2006 a team led by Prof. Martin Barker at Aberystwyth University was commissioned by the British Board of Film Classification to study audience responses to five films that the board had recently struggled classify, due to their depictions of sexual violence. This article (written by the project’s Research Assistant) draws on materials generated in relation to two of the films: Irreversible and A Ma Soeur! It argues that analysis of the patterns of narration that viewers employed in their written and spoken accounts of the films helped to make visible the dominant fields of meaning for those who embraced and refused the films. In particular, it will contrast the different structural role of the director in viewer strategies for negotiating and managing two issues of common concern in relation to screened sexual violence: narrative ambiguity and overwhelming affective power.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Selfe, Dr Melanie
• Authors: Selfe, M.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Journal Name: Participations
• ISSN (Online): 1749-8716
• Published Online: 01 May 2008