The thesis deals with the theory of simulation and simulacra by French representative of postmodernism Jean Baudrillard. It focuses on way how Baudrillard thematises gradual extinction of signs connected with their representational function and the emergence of hyperreality which contains simulation. The attention is also focused on concept of reality, virtuality, simulation and illusion. The thesis includes Paul Virilio's thoughts and also Manuel Castells'. The basic framework of research is completed by a theory of fictional worlds. The second part of thesis includes an analysis of how this issue is reflected in present film production via analysis of content of the films The Matrix (Wachowski, 1999) and Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001). The analysis reflects different interpretation of illusive/virtual space and its relation to reality. The aim of thesis is to analyse the selected concepts which describe an emergence and interaction of simulation focusing on contemporary society which is connected with modern technology and also to point at reflection of conceptions mentioned in the films. The goal of thesis is also to explore the films, compare them and show the way how they contain the theme of reality, simulation and illusion and how much is the content of these films connected with the action...

The filmic oeuvre of auteur director David Lynch has a reputation among average spectators as being too “difficult” to understand. In particular, the Lynch films Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive are considered by the average spectator to be devoid of any real meaning. Spectator theory provides insight into the structures through which spectators find or fail to find meaning in films. Spectator theory explains that the average spectator has a set of schemas for “reading” and understanding film, and that these schemas are shaped by the conventions of popular Hollywood cinema. The films of David Lynch do not adhere to these conventions, and thus challenge the average spectator’s competency with regard to their ability to emplot a coherent and meaningful narrative from these films. In the case of Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, the films present the spectator with multiple mysteries, yet never provide any solutions to these mysteries. If a spectator is to find meaning in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, then such a spectator needs an appropriate schema for interpreting these films. This dissertation aims to develop one possible schema which can be used to find meaning in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. To this end, the films Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive are shown to qualify as metaphysical detective films, a genre of narrative which playfully interprets the conventions of classical detective narrative. Under the neologism “transtextual detective” this dissertation traces the characteristics of a spectator who would assume the role of a detective figure, existing outside of the borders of the film text, and calling upon a diverse collection of texts and schemata to solve the mysteries identifiable in these metaphysical detective films. In order to test the applicability of the schema of the transtextual detective, the writer undertakes a demonstration of an investigation into the films Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive while assuming the role of a transtextual detective. The writer firstly indentifies the mystery of identity as a salient mystery in both films, before demonstrating how solutions to this mystery can be found in Lost Highway. / Thesis (MA (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The filmic oeuvre of auteur director David Lynch has a reputation among average spectators as being too “difficult” to understand. In particular, the Lynch films Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive are considered by the average spectator to be devoid of any real meaning. Spectator theory provides insight into the structures through which spectators find or fail to find meaning in films. Spectator theory explains that the average spectator has a set of schemas for “reading” and understanding film, and that these schemas are shaped by the conventions of popular Hollywood cinema. The films of David Lynch do not adhere to these conventions, and thus challenge the average spectator’s competency with regard to their ability to emplot a coherent and meaningful narrative from these films. In the case of Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, the films present the spectator with multiple mysteries, yet never provide any solutions to these mysteries. If a spectator is to find meaning in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, then such a spectator needs an appropriate schema for interpreting these films. This dissertation aims to develop one possible schema which can be used to find meaning in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. To this end, the films Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive are shown to qualify as metaphysical detective films, a genre of narrative which playfully interprets the conventions of classical detective narrative. Under the neologism “transtextual detective” this dissertation traces the characteristics of a spectator who would assume the role of a detective figure, existing outside of the borders of the film text, and calling upon a diverse collection of texts and schemata to solve the mysteries identifiable in these metaphysical detective films. In order to test the applicability of the schema of the transtextual detective, the writer undertakes a demonstration of an investigation into the films Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive while assuming the role of a transtextual detective. The writer firstly indentifies the mystery of identity as a salient mystery in both films, before demonstrating how solutions to this mystery can be found in Lost Highway. / Thesis (MA (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

147f. / Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-05-17T13:10:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Adriano Oliveira.pdf: 4074865 bytes, checksum: 88169b591fd20f78a3607699f14cd495 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Alda Lima da Silva(sivalda@ufba.br) on 2013-05-28T19:24:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Adriano Oliveira.pdf: 4074865 bytes, checksum: 88169b591fd20f78a3607699f14cd495 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-28T19:24:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Adriano Oliveira.pdf: 4074865 bytes, checksum: 88169b591fd20f78a3607699f14cd495 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Esta pesquisa procurou identificar de que maneira certas obras contemporâneas de ficção refletem concepções sobre a subjetividade em nossa época, através de variações na forma de ?representação da irrealidade?, entendida como uma abordagem narrativa na qual a trama conduz tanto o protagonista quanto o leitor a não perceberem que o mundo ficcional apresentado em primeiro plano é uma ilusão e que uma outra realidade subjaz a essa aparência. Para tanto, a pesquisa se pautou na análise dos filmes Matrix e Cidade dos Sonhos, tendo como marco teórico a semiótica textual de Umberto Eco. Como resultado, Matrix revelou-se uma obra que propõe uma representação maniqueísta e ingênua das fronteiras entre realidade e irrealidade, sustentando-se em uma dualidade que contrasta com os ideais de dissolução das fronteiras da era pós-moderna. Com o auxílio da teoria psicanalítica, verificamos que Cidade dos Sonhos, por sua vez, apresenta-se como uma obra comparativamente mais complexa, oferecendo uma instigante relação entre subjetividade e irrealidade balizada pelo desejo. / Salvador

The films of David Lynch are full of ambiguities that derive from his habitual distortion of time, inversion of characters, and creation of ironic, dreamlike worlds that are mired in crisis. While these ambiguities have been explored from numerous angles, scholars have only recently begun to closely examine music's role in Lynch's cinematic imagination. This dissertation explores the relationship between music and fantasy through the lens of Lacanian psychoanalysis where fantasy plays a crucial role in helping psychoanalytical subjects work through their psychical crises. In particular, I look at Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1996), and Mulholland Drive (2001), showing how Lynch employs music to manage and, in the case of Mulholland Drive, move beyond the particular crises of jouissance experienced by the Characters--and also the viewers. Before engaging in my analysis of Lynch's film music, however, I begin with an extended discussion of what Kevin Korsyn describes as the current crisis of music scholarship, examining how this crisis manifests itself in recent "postmodern" interpretations of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Few works are invested with as much cultural capital as this one and arguably the discourse around it exhibits the crisis more acutely than any other. Korsyn restricts his analysis to the fields of musicology and music theory, but I approach the crisis of music scholarship obliquely, through my Lacanian reading of Lynch's film music. This dissertation, then, has two goals. On one hand it attempts to examine music's role in Lynch's films, and on the other, it explores how Lynch's use of music might aid us in navigating and moving beyond the institutional crises of music scholarship. This Lynchian solution to our crisis provides a glimpse of what might lie beyond postmodernism, a new philosophical movement some are calling the "New Sincerity." This term covers several loosely related cultural or philosophical movements that have followed in the wake of postmodernism, the most notable being what Raoul Eshelman and Judith Butler refer to as "performatism." Finally, I return to Beethoven's Ninth to offer a second, performative reading, demonstrating how Lynch's use of music can be translated into current musical discourse. / text