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- Title
Screening Queerness: Moral Agency and Representation in Two Romanian Movies.
- Authors
DIMA, Ramona
- Abstract
In the context of the Romanian society which mostly rejects discussing issues of queer (LGBTQIA+) persons, I consider this to be an important and necessary topic, both at academic and social discourse levels. This paper aims to present and analyze the interconnected layers of sexual identity, media representation, affects and forms of discrimination in two Romanian films (based on contemporary novels): Cristian Mungiu's "Beyond the Hills" and Tudor Giurgiu's "Love Sick". I will be using a feminist approach (informed by Bell Hooks, Sara Ahmed, Eve Sedgwick, etc.), with regard to contemporary theories from research fields like queer studies, gender studies and media studies (see Ann Cvetkovich, Alexander Doty, Richard Dyer). The focus of the paper is on how queer film characters are built, in relation to the books they are based on and how they are transformed (reduced, augmented etc.) by these transmedia narratives. Regarding the overall representation of queer matters in media products, we can look at: how queer persons are perceived and embodied as characters by the "majority" and how they perceive themselves and reflect their identities in the cultural products in which they take part. This queer gaze stands at the core of the relation of various queer audiences and the media products they are exposed to - which are mostly heteronormative. In between these representations and imagery of queerness, the producers of the literature and films I aim to analyze in this paper are heterosexual authors. They exert and impose their agency, and within this frame they choose to deal with topics that are not part of their own experience. Selfrepresentation, coming from LGBTQIA+ persons themselves, is overridden by the mainstream imagination of the heterosexual producer.
- Subjects
ROMANIA; MOTION picture industry; LGBTQ+ people in mass media; LGBTQ+ people; GENDER identity; MASS media
- Publication
Romanian Journal of Journalism & Communication / Revista Română de Jurnalism şi Comunicare- RRJC, 2016, Vol 11, Issue 2/3, p45
- ISSN
1842-256X
- Publication type
Article