dc.contributor.author |
Wilson, Charles (Charles Alfred) |
en |
dc.date.accessioned |
2009-02-10T23:30:26Z |
en |
dc.date.available |
2009-02-10T23:30:26Z |
en |
dc.date.issued |
2005 |
en |
dc.identifier.uri |
http://hdl.handle.net/2292/3386 |
en |
dc.description |
Restricted Item. Print thesis available in the University of Auckland Library or may be available through Interlibrary Loan. |
en |
dc.description.abstract |
The use in film and literature of unusual subjectivities enables an alternative
representation to be produced of the societies in which they were produced. In the case
of Victor Erice and Carlos Saura, the 'Children of Franco' construct serves to express
dissident political commentary through the ironically 'depoliticised' gaze of a
supposedly innocent' young child. This perspective helps to 'naturalise' the political
content of the film and thus circumvent censorship.
It is not very common for a film to take up the point of view of an animal, and
even less so for the animal in question to be a cow. However, Julio Medem's Vacas
(1992) does just that. The resulting 'cow's-eye view' of the world presents a disturbed
vision of Basque society and identity. Cycles of ever-repeating violence encircle the
Irigibel and Mendiluce 'houses,' under the gaze of the bovine 'silent witnesses,' and the
only way to transcend them appears to be through love and death.
Animals are more frequent observers of human life in literature, but the type of
anthropomorphic narrative found in Bernardo Atxaga's Memorias de una vaca (1991) is
rejected by modern, adult society, and deemed suitable only for children's fiction.
Despite this, the novel is directed cowards both adults and children, and its implicit
ideology carries a political message encouraging the reader to adopt a Basque identity.
The deployment of the alternative subjectivities discussed in this thesis, then.
contains an element of irony that simultaneously undermines the dominant society
depicted and questions concepts of identity. The works explore the environment of the
losers of the Civil War from the perspective of an 'innocent' child, and two ironic
variants on the mythical rural Basque idyll from a cow's-eye view. |
en |
dc.publisher |
ResearchSpace@Auckland |
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dc.relation.isreferencedby |
UoA1572559 |
en |
dc.rights |
Restricted Item. Print thesis available in the University of Auckland Library or may be available through Interlibrary Loan. |
en |
dc.rights.uri |
https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm |
en |
dc.title |
Innocent children, political animals: alternative subjectivities in Basque film and literature |
en |
dc.type |
Thesis |
en |
thesis.degree.grantor |
The University of Auckland |
en |
thesis.degree.level |
Masters |
en |
dc.rights.accessrights |
http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/ClosedAccess |
en |
dc.identifier.wikidata |
Q112867658 |
|