Representation of abortion in selected film and television
Date
2016
Authors
Barrington, Claire Ann
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Abstract
This dissertation argues that the representation of abortion provides a platform which
reveals women’s societal and gendered positions, and provides a critique of the
hypocritical attitudes to which societies subject women. I will be considering various
representations of abortion in six films and two television shows. The films are Alexander
Kluge’s Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (1973), Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3
Weeks and 2 Days (2007), Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake (2004), Fruit Chan’s Dumplings
(2004), The Pang Brother’s Re-Cycle (2006) and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (2012). The
two television shows are FX’s American Horror Story (2011—) and ABC’s Grey’s
Anatomy (2005—). Each text provides a unique representation of abortion, often situating
the issue within particular physical, social, political and cultural locations. In presenting
a close reading of each text, I will show how the representation of abortion in each chapter
relates to differing social, political and cultural ideologies. I will argue that there is a
developing sense of the lived realities of women, which include, but are not limited to,
issues of alienation, autonomy, agency and identity. Such lived realties, I will contend,
are constructed within societies that, aware or not of the fact, are dominated by patriarchal
influences.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts.
Johannesburg, 2016
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Citation
Barrington, Clare Ann (2016) Representation of abortion in selected film and television, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/22639>