Movie as self-portrait. Auto-narration and narrative identity in Neil Jordan’s „Breakfast on Pluto”
Journal Title: Kultura Popularna - Year 2018, Vol 3, Issue 57
Abstract
The paper aims to analyze Neil Jordan’s famous movie Breakfast on Pluto in the context of affective “narrative identity.” Breakfast on Pluto is an adaptation of Patrick McCabe’s diary and presents the story of a man who wants to be a woman – he feels like a woman and gradually transforms into one. Patrick/Patricia is thus a transsexual (not only transgender) person who tells the story of a bodily metamorphosis. The author of the paper finds the process of storytelling extremely interesting for a number of reasons. In the paper, the author focuses especially on the process of creating a new identity for the protagonist through the movie’s narration in reference to the categories of “subjective narration” (Edward Branigan) and narrative identity, that is the creation of an identity in the process of telling one’s own story. The author shows how the tools of the movie can shape the process of storytelling (by using special frames, montage, etc.) and how three stories are incorporated in Jordan’s movie: the male and the female story as well as, finally, the subversive self-creation when Patrick/Patricia becomes one whole, one processual identity (in the context of Judith Butler’s assumption about gender). In the paper, the diegesis of the movie will also be analyzed: a number of objects – attributes of masculinity and femininity and the quasi-parodic character of the movie space and the process of storytelling. Parody in Breakfast on Pluto emphasizes the subversive and surfictional structure of the self-story in the movie. The author treats Breakfast on Pluto as a movie version of Entwicklungsroman – the process of narrativization of an identity in transition, of fictionalizing the real life of the protagonist. Therefore, the author also refers to J. M. Coetzee’s assumptions about confession, which is always an important part of self-narration.<br/><br/>
Authors and Affiliations
Ewelina Twardoch-Raś
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP408184
- DOI 10.5604/01.3001.0012.7289
- Views 36
- Downloads 0
Od herosa do superbohatera, od „potwora” do celebryty. Disnejowski Herkules w drodze na popkulturowy Olimp
Hercules by Walt Disney is a fairy-tale type movie that re-tells well-known greek myth about Heracles, ancient Greek hero. In this paper I try to analyze the title character in order to prove that he is a monomythical re...
Zasiedlenie polskiej blogosfery przez digital imigrants. O cyfrowych aktywnościach popkulturowych
Fascynujące światy pełne wampirów, kosmitów i postaci baśniowych. Czyli jak telewizja (serialowa) zaanektowała irracjonalność
Homeland and Resilience: Immunitas, Katechon, the Uncanny, and Trauma’s Displacement
The paper focuses on the category of resilience as it refers to the capacity of socio-political systems to withstand stress or to adapt to it. Invoking resilience enables a multifaceted reading of the TV series Homeland...
Movie as self-portrait. Auto-narration and narrative identity in Neil Jordan’s „Breakfast on Pluto”
The paper aims to analyze Neil Jordan’s famous movie Breakfast on Pluto in the context of affective “narrative identity.” Breakfast on Pluto is an adaptation of Patrick McCabe’s diary and presents the story of a man who...