Text

theses

My project applies different theoretical approaches in the field of identity theory to the study of four female characters from two Italian and two European films, which all experience, in different and idiosyncratic ways, a process of identity reshaping. The representation of identity and that of the individual have been often simplified and even trivialized in film. Moreover, the two often come to overlap rather conveniently and become one and the same. Current scholarships in gender studies, psychology and philosophy have widely embraced theories of identity as agency and performance, while I argue that the study of film gives an insight into a critical distinction between performance and identity as two separate, oftentimes conflicting notions, altogether reframing the critical discourse on the subject matter. I start by tracing the theme of female identity in Italian film culture from the ‘60s to the present day; I briefly look at different representations in which the notion of personal identity has been framed and contextualized. I also outline the inevitable boundaries of the cinematic medium vis-à-vis the filmic representation of identity. I then move onto describing two main instances of identity reshaping that are used to analyze the characters. In the second and third chapters, I discuss two characters whose process of reshaping features or is characterized by an outstanding physical manifestation, causing one’s body to be altered in ways that might seem bizarre or extreme or even ego-dystonic: Sonia in Matteo Garrone’s Primo Amore (2004), based on Marco Mariolini’s autobiography Il Cacciatore di Anoressiche (1997), and Agrado in Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother (1999). In the fourth and fifth chapters, I look at two characters whose journey of reshaping does not necessarily have an immediate physical manifestation, but is rather actuated internally and concerns chiefly the character’s mind and emotional realm. At stake in this chapter is the study of the dynamics that are triggered when one’s self-understanding is denied by external circumstances or by internal mechanisms. The characters I analyze are Irena in Giuseppe Tornatore’s La Sconosciuta (2006), and Dr. Jenny Isaksson in Ingmar Bergman’s Face to Face (1976).

ETD_5738

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Francesco Pascuzzi

doi:10.7282/T30G3KJ8

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.