COLLECTION NAME:
Graduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Memories and Perception: the Child's Gaze in Film and Animation
Creator:
Monaghan, Maureen Louise
Subject:
Thesis (M.F.A.) -- Film and Television
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Film and Television
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
"Using Lacanian gaze theory, this paper begins to investigate how meaning is conveyed with the construction of the child’s gaze in six animated shorts: The Man with the Beautiful Eyes by Jonathan Hodgson, The Street by Caroline Leaf, Windy Day and Moonbird by the Hubleys, Drawn from Memory, and A Little Routine by George Griffin, and four live action films: Rene Clement’s, Forbidden Games (1952), Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol (1948), Robert Mulligan’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander (1984). The films are grouped into three categories: films whose narrative is driven by actual children’s voices, films narrated by adults recalling a childhood memory, and films that have an omnipotent narrator but use camera perspective and diegetic development to establish the child’s perspective. Through morphing, illustration, and abstract imagery the above animated shorts show how the perceptions of children are often confused and rely heavily on the imagination for clarification. In the listed live action films, this disconnect between reality and imagination is shown by placing the child in a removed setting from the main action, such as under a table, on the stairs, through a partially opened door. Through constructing the child’s gaze, however, all of the above take the viewer on vicarious journey back to his/her own childhood and tell the viewer more about themselves than about children."
Abstract:
Keywords: gaze theory, psychoanalytic, vicarious experience, Lacan, objet-petit a
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia : Savannah College of Art and Design (Atlanta)
Date:
2015-07
Format:
PDF (44 pages): illustrations (some color); WMV