Refraction and essay film: the case of Alexander Sokurov
Author
Nasirov, Yasin
Advisor
Karpat, Colleen Bevin Kennedy
Date
2017-02Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This thesis analyzes refraction in essay film. As a self-reflexive method,
refraction deals with the self-critique of visual representation in essay film. In
this thesis, I develop two different dimensions of post-aesthetics of essay film in
the line of semio-ideological understanding. The first dimension, as a horizontal
interstitial aesthetization of essay film, deals with cinematic parataxis and
metalepsis, where I discuss Godardian constellation and Agnès Varda’s
metaleptic narrative through Adorno’s negative dialectics and Benjaminian
constellation. The second dimension of the post-aesthetics of essay film, as
vertical interstice, deals with intermediality and refraction. As constituting to
different layer of essayistic construction in the film, intermediality is discussed
in Peter Greenaway and Harun Farocki, and refraction is discussed in the line of
photographic and visual epistemology. The thesis finalizes with the discussion
of Alexander Sokurov’s late refractive cinema (Russian Ark (2002) and
Francofonia (2015)), through the horizontal and vertical understanding of essay
film’s post-aeshetics.