Lucid and The Machinist: Prototypes of the Psychotraumatic Thriller? PDF Download

Author: Lydia Gaukler
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640330668
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 53

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Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, University of Mannheim, 17 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: It is common ground that films offer a richness and an intensity that cannot be found in any other medium. The unique combination of visual and acoustic elements; the work-ing together of language, gesture, mimic and music; of images and sound, offer an im-pressive account of reality. Wedding explains: "With the best films, the viewer experi-ences a sort of dissociative state in which ordinary existence is temporarily suspended. No other art form pervades the consciousness of the individual experiencing it to the same extent and with such power." Of course one may argue that some literary works can have the same absorbing effect, still the medium film is undoubtedly a very power-ful one when it comes to captivating people's attention. Films "have become a perva-sive and omnipresent part of our society with little conscious awareness of the pro-found influence the medium may be exerting" . One extremely widespread and popular genre is the thriller and its subgenres. Ranging from spy, gangster and science-fiction films to horror films, splatters and stalkers, there is hardly any film that has not been labelled a thriller. A relatively new develop-ment within the thriller is the topic of mental illness and psychopathology. Two recent examples are The Machinist by Brad Anderson and Lucid by Sean Garrity. In both films, the directors concern themselves with trauma and its impact on the psyche of the re-spective protagonists. In his book 'The Suspense Thriller', Derry outlines a new thriller subgenre: the psy-chotraumatic thriller. I shall like to discuss whether Lucid and The Machinist may or may not be subsumed under this label. In the following, I will first outline the plots of the two films. Then I shall want to concen-trate on the acute and post-traumatic stre

Author: Sebastian Taugerbeck
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640565398
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 2, University of Siegen, course: Text Production, language: English, abstract: Brad Anderson, an American director and scriptwriter, proves with his fifth film “The Machinist” that neither a big budget nor the financial supports of a glamorous Hollywood studio have got to be essential conditions for producing a fine piece of art. After he had finished his work on the screenplay, he presented it all the usual Hollywood studios, in the hope that he could find a financially strong sponsor for his ambitious project. Even though his scriptwriter Scott Kosar did a great job, no studio or producer wants to finance or support the film because of its overwhelming dark mood and twisted plot. After they had searched for several years and were turned down by every approached studio, they decided to shot the entire film on locations in Barcelona, Spain. Even though those financial problems led to an austerity budget, nothing could hold them back to produce this masterpiece of narration work. Trevor Reznick (Christian Bale) is captured in a nightmare from which he can’t escape: He hasn’t slept in a year, without knowing the cause of his sleeplessness. Due to his insomnia he had lost one third of his original weight and is nothing but skin and bone. His only attachment figures are the prostitute Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and the waitress Marie (Aitana Sánchez-Gijòn), who works in an airport cafe. He works as a mechanist in a dirty factory under the lead of a misanthropic assistant foreman. Because of his appearance and his strange behaviour he has lost all amicable contact to his workmates. But then he meets Ivan (John Sharian) who claims to be the new worker on the welding bench. During a routine maintenance Trevor is distracted by Ivan and causes a horrible accident whereby his mate Miller (Michael Ironside) loses his left arm. He tries to explain his carelessness but nobody has ever heard of Ivan. After that, a sequence of strange calamities progresses and Trevor thinks that everyone has conspired against him.

Author: Esther Döringer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656296316
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Erfurt (Philosophische Fakultät), course: Historical Perspective on Present Day English, language: English, abstract: The Norman Conquest in 1066 was not only an important event in the history of England, but also had a great impact on the English language (cf. e.g. Baugh & Cable 2004: 108 ff.; Faiß 1992: 68). Besides various other changes in the English language system, which will not be discussed here in further detail, many French words were borrowed into English. Some of the French suffixes contained in complex loan words subsequently became productive in English derivation (cf. e.g. Bauer 1993: 225 f.; Faiß 1992: 3; Marchand 1969: 210 f.). However, I argue that the ways in which these suffixes were employed in English word-formation vary greatly (cf. e.g. Marchand 1969: 210 f.). While some of the borrowed suffixes were extensively used in English derivation, others remained largely restricted. This will be illustrated by describing how the borrowed French suffixes -ment and -ure were integrated into the English system of word-formation. Special attention will be paid to the word class and etymological origin of the bases -ment and -ure were combined with. Although sociolinguistic factors might also influence how foreign suffixes were used in derivational processes of word-formation (cf. van Loon 2005: xiii), this term paper will focus on language-internal, morphological factors only.

Author: Irina Giertz
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656851107
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 13

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Essay from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,1, University of Cologne (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: English Word Formation, language: English, abstract: The aim of the following essay is to expose the irregular character of derivation without affixation. To this end, the derivational processes of conversion and shortening will be surveyed first and different types of shortenings will be scrutinised as to their heterogeneity; second, the unpredictability of their output will be exposed, and, third, it will be shown that no definite rules can be sustained; fourth, a certain unifying approach to the consideration of irregularities will be outlined.

Author: Bruno Jurilj
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638828506
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: gut (2,0), Free University of Berlin (JFK Institut für Nordamerikastudien), course: Parameters: typology and variation, language: English, abstract: This paper is offers a short overview of the basic evidence on clitics in Serbian/Croatian. Serbian/Croatian is a language with a virtualy free word order due to ist rich morphological heritage in form of inflections for case, gender and tense marking. In this paper, I am basically concerned with a major exception to this general rule- the position of clitics. Serbo-Croat (nowdays formally divided into three standard languages Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian) has a rich system of clitic forms, including Dative and Accusative pronominal clitics; verbal clitics; which are unstressed forms of finite auxiliary verbs; and the interrogative marker “li“. On the course of this paper I will confront some opposing paradigmas on the rules underlying the structural positon of clitics within the syntax of Serbian/Croatian. .

Author: Nadine Richters
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640140168
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Hamburg (IAA), course: Seminar Linguistik: Semantics: Understanding the meaning of words and their combinations, 18 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This term paper deals with the development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes in terms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, prototype semantics has begun to gain an important role in linguistics and led to a pardigm shift. This is proved by research in cognitive psychology. People have a command of categorising, all times. Without the process of categorisation, our brain would be overstrained because the flood of information, the brain receives, has to be memorised and, thus, categorised, in a certain way. First of all, I will explain the importance of categorisation and concepts in everyday life, then I will introduce some forms of categorisations (Artistotle's traditional view and the prototype theory), explain them by giving examples, analyse and criticise them, insofar as I consider them critisisable. In section three I will describe the development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes with regard to childhood. One important question in this context will be whether prototypes are changeable in the course of life? The process of categorisation by having some concepts in mind, is an important factor in human existence. Human beings categorise what they perceive by comparing the perceived object with their mentally represented concept. All people think categorically because it helps them to establish a certainty and order. People need certainty and order, for not drowning in chaos. Without categorising, human beings would have to store the information of each single element which encounters him. Categories and concepts help us to understand the world, its elements and we establish a form of cohesive network by building up concepts and categori