The thesis examines the nature of the "real" in the cinema; I overview the theories that are historically used, and offer some alternative models. First, I survey how the "real" has been traditionally theorized in film theory. The realist/anti-realist debate is addressed; the psycholinguistic theory of Jacques Lacan and Jean Baudrillard's postmodern model of the hyperreal are reexamined in light of their profound effect on film theory's model of the cinematic "real." I argue against these theories as models of spectatorship and the "real" because of their hermetic nature. / I then consider Walter Benjamin's Passagen-Werk and the "dialectical image" as an alternative approach to the problems of the "real." Benjamin's model takes into consideration both the epistemological nature of the image and the problematics of cultural context. In conclusion, I analyze the problem of mediation in any model of the cinematic "real."
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.60677 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | MacKenzie, Scott, 1967- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001291820, proquestno: AAIMM74516, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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