The Focaliser Focalised in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928)

The concepts of internal and external focalisation, as described by Bal (1985), Rimmon-Kenan (1983) and others, provide, with certain variations, a powerful way to approach, from a rigorous narratological standpoint, some of the most hotly debated issues in film theory in the past twenty years: spe...

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Main Author: Celestino Deleyto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad de Zaragoza 1993-12-01
Series:Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies
Online Access:https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/11504
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author Celestino Deleyto
author_facet Celestino Deleyto
author_sort Celestino Deleyto
collection DOAJ
description The concepts of internal and external focalisation, as described by Bal (1985), Rimmon-Kenan (1983) and others, provide, with certain variations, a powerful way to approach, from a rigorous narratological standpoint, some of the most hotly debated issues in film theory in the past twenty years: spectator manipulation and subject positioning in classical and non-classical films through the activation of mechanisms related to the gaze. This analysis of The Crowd (King Vidor 1928) attempts an interpretation of the film through the exploration of patterns of external and internal focalisation in two key scenes of the film. This is related to the use of narrative time by the text 2 and the complex network of tensions, parallelisms and contrasts established at several narrative levels. As a conclusion, it is suggested that the narratively unmotivated disavowal of internal focalisation in one of these scenes works as a metaphor for the process of deterioration undergone by the protagonist in the course of the film.
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spelling doaj-art-385cf7a8a9fa491fa8c73ab3d90bc7052025-08-20T03:21:47ZengUniversidad de ZaragozaMiscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies1137-63682386-48341993-12-011410.26754/ojs_misc/mj.199311504The Focaliser Focalised in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928)Celestino Deleyto0Universidad de Zaragoza The concepts of internal and external focalisation, as described by Bal (1985), Rimmon-Kenan (1983) and others, provide, with certain variations, a powerful way to approach, from a rigorous narratological standpoint, some of the most hotly debated issues in film theory in the past twenty years: spectator manipulation and subject positioning in classical and non-classical films through the activation of mechanisms related to the gaze. This analysis of The Crowd (King Vidor 1928) attempts an interpretation of the film through the exploration of patterns of external and internal focalisation in two key scenes of the film. This is related to the use of narrative time by the text 2 and the complex network of tensions, parallelisms and contrasts established at several narrative levels. As a conclusion, it is suggested that the narratively unmotivated disavowal of internal focalisation in one of these scenes works as a metaphor for the process of deterioration undergone by the protagonist in the course of the film. https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/11504
spellingShingle Celestino Deleyto
The Focaliser Focalised in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928)
Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies
title The Focaliser Focalised in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928)
title_full The Focaliser Focalised in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928)
title_fullStr The Focaliser Focalised in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928)
title_full_unstemmed The Focaliser Focalised in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928)
title_short The Focaliser Focalised in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928)
title_sort focaliser focalised in king vidor s the crowd 1928
url https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/misc/article/view/11504
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