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Death and suffering as a contemporary media performance. Performance studies perspective
Ewa Jeleń-Kubalewska
Abstract
The main goal of this dissertation is to analyze how media (photography in particular) presents distressing events in postmodern Western world, as well as to answer the question of how (and to what degree) media shapes our attitudes/ behaviors towards death and suffering. The annual World Press Photo exhibition remains the main case study of my doctorate. Within its framework the most appreciated photos are those to which jury assigns a high degree of drama. The exhibition is also characterized by the preponderance of images presenting other people's suffering and death (preponderance over eg images presenting sport and art events or other, less shocking events). I was interested in such aspects of the issue as: border of private/public in Western culture, ethnocentrism in photographic and television representations of Other, collective memory and media recording of trauma, the image in the discourse of power, aesthetization of suffering, as well as the World Press Photo competition and exhibition as a cultural, organizational, and technical performance (within the meaning bestowed to these three types of performances by McKenzie). This work verifies the usual view that it is the magnitude of the images of atrocities that stifles our ability to respond, and also tries to explain how the system of knowledge-power in Western societies affects whose suffering (and why) we do not show. It also questions the ability of the image to unveil the truth about the past, and thus calls into question its documentary value.- Record ID
- UAMf40530dc12534701b18c2796143ef5db
- Diploma type
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Author
- Title in Polish
- Cierpienie i śmierć jako współczesny performans medialny. Perspektywa performatyczna
- Title in English
- Death and suffering as a contemporary media performance. Performance studies perspective
- Language
- pol (pl) Polish
- Certifying Unit
- Faculty of Social Sciences (FoSS)
- Discipline
- cultural studies / (humanities) / (humanities)
- Scientific discipline (2.0)
- Status
- Finished
- Defense Date
- 25-06-2014
- Title date
- 25-06-2014
- Supervisor
- URL
- http://hdl.handle.net/10593/10994 Opening in a new tab
- Keywords in English
- Performance; Death; Suffering; Media; World Press Photo
- Abstract in English
- The main goal of this dissertation is to analyze how media (photography in particular) presents distressing events in postmodern Western world, as well as to answer the question of how (and to what degree) media shapes our attitudes/ behaviors towards death and suffering. The annual World Press Photo exhibition remains the main case study of my doctorate. Within its framework the most appreciated photos are those to which jury assigns a high degree of drama. The exhibition is also characterized by the preponderance of images presenting other people's suffering and death (preponderance over eg images presenting sport and art events or other, less shocking events). I was interested in such aspects of the issue as: border of private/public in Western culture, ethnocentrism in photographic and television representations of Other, collective memory and media recording of trauma, the image in the discourse of power, aesthetization of suffering, as well as the World Press Photo competition and exhibition as a cultural, organizational, and technical performance (within the meaning bestowed to these three types of performances by McKenzie). This work verifies the usual view that it is the magnitude of the images of atrocities that stifles our ability to respond, and also tries to explain how the system of knowledge-power in Western societies affects whose suffering (and why) we do not show. It also questions the ability of the image to unveil the truth about the past, and thus calls into question its documentary value.
- Thesis file
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- File: 1
- Cierpienie i śmierć jako współczesny performans medialny. Perspektywa performatyczna, File doktorat EJK_całość.pdf / 1 MB
- doktorat EJK_całość.pdf
- publication date: 30-01-2020
- Cierpienie i śmierć jako współczesny performans medialny. Perspektywa performatyczna, File doktorat EJK_całość.pdf / 1 MB
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- Uniform Resource Identifier
- https://researchportal.amu.edu.pl/info/phd/UAMf40530dc12534701b18c2796143ef5db/
- URN
urn:amu-prod:UAMf40530dc12534701b18c2796143ef5db