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Representations of sexuality in the films of François Ozon
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Stanley, Alice (2009) Representations of sexuality in the films of François Ozon. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2334545~S15
Abstract
This is a study of the shorts and feature films by the young, prolific French film
director, François Ozon. The thesis uncovers the impact of Ozon’s oeuvre on
cinematic audiences. The films raise questions about death, desire and sexual
relationships in unsettling and surprising ways, through a variety of different
genres. This thesis focuses on close textual reading of the films, employing
feminist and queer theory to underline and echo the implications of Ozon’s
representations of sexuality; here it is argued that Ozon’s work presents a
challenge to heteronormative ideology and culture. In particular, this study
suggests that Ozonian cinema encourages the spectator to take up a fluid and
non-normative viewing position often denied in mainstream narrative cinema.
This study focuses on analyses of taboo, trauma and loss, as well as
generic conventions and gender performances which refer to psychoanalytic,
feminist and queer understandings of certain behaviours and situations; quotidian,
but intense, experiences in the films emphasize ways in which the human subject
struggles with the expression of desire and sexuality. Although not as radical as
queer theorists or film critics may wish, Ozon’s films often use comedy and irony to
illustrate the problems of a restrictive patriarchal society and the way it can harm
individuals, thus unsettling the normative assumptions on which the majority of
social structures are still based. Ozonian cinema, this thesis argues, thus presents
a compassionate and, indeed, political comment on contemporary French and
European society.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Ozon, François, 1967- -- Criticism and interpretation, Sex in motion pictures, Motion pictures -- France -- Social aspects, Heterosexism | ||||
Official Date: | July 2009 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of French Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Haigh, Sam ; Morrey, Douglas | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | 306 leaves : ill. | ||||
Language: | eng |
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