Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
5-2014
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
English
Degree Program
English, MA
Committee Chair
Byers, Thomas B.
Subject
Greenaway, Peter--Criticism and interpretation; Motion picture producers and directors--Biography
Abstract
In this thesis, discussed and analyzed are the narrative films of British film director Peter Greenaway through lenses of queer theory, feminism, and theories of the monstrous to investigate Greenaway’s notion of the Other in his films. Nearly all his films include a “nonstandard” Othering of characters, a breaking down of societal binaries, as well as crossing the line of what is taboo in our society. This Othering forces viewers to reevaluate their own subjectivity, and to evaluate which groups they see themselves as a part of. In creating fantastic worlds in which the characters do not function within the same boundaries as the “real world,” Greenaway deconstructs and restructures boundaries within the minds of his viewers. In reflecting our own images in Greenaway’s Others, we can begin to understand, encounter, and face external Others, as well as the Others that lurk within our own psyches.
Recommended Citation
Groves, Kristina Sue Bohleber 1978-, "Undoings : reversals and dissolutions of binaries in the narrative films of Peter Greenaway." (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 541.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/541
