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Interpretation, irony, and "surface meaning" in film

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MacDowell, James (2018) Interpretation, irony, and "surface meaning" in film. Film-Philosophy, 22 (2). pp. 261-280. doi:10.3366/film.2018.0076 ISSN 1466-4615.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3366/film.2018.0076

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Abstract

In theories of interpretation, the artwork's “surface” is frequently cast as something to be looked past in our quest for meaning. As such, the “surface” has also understandably been the focus of several polemics against the excesses of interpretive criticism – in film scholarship and beyond. This article explores what role concepts of the “surface” and “surface meaning” might fruitfully play in the interpretation of fiction films by thinking about a particular kind of expression-by-implication available to the medium: irony. An under-theorised phenomenon, filmic irony could seem to require interpretation in order to grasp meanings that reside precisely elsewhere than the “surface”. Yet, can we even distinguish between a “surface meaning” and an “implied” meaning in a non-linguistic medium like film? This article addresses such questions by exploring the possibility of separating the explicit and implicit, as well as interpretation and comprehension, in a medium whose very capacity for ironic expression has sometimes been doubted.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures
Divisions: Faculty of Arts > Film and Television Studies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Irony in motion pictures, Aesthetics, Heckerling, Amy, Perkins, V.F., 1936-, Bordwell, David
Journal or Publication Title: Film-Philosophy
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
ISSN: 1466-4615
Official Date: June 2018
Dates:
DateEvent
June 2018Published
9 March 2018Accepted
Volume: 22
Number: 2
Page Range: pp. 261-280
DOI: 10.3366/film.2018.0076
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit: 23 April 2018
Date of first compliant Open Access: 15 May 2018
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