Opportunities and limitations of the past : a study of historical films
(2023) HISS33 20231History
- Abstract
- The film medium has a very large potential to convey thoughts about history to the public. Previous studies of historical film have focused on analyzing the films. The purpose of this master’s thesis is instead to find patterns in the effect the historical elements have on the films' narrative, as well as how they value history. To achieve this, two sub-questions have been formulated.
• Do the historical elements have a decorative function or are they important to the story?
• Is it history that creates conflict in the story or is the course of events driven by universal aspects?
The material used is the ten highest-grossing historical films in terms of ticket sales that premiered in theaters between 1990 and 2009. Theoretically,... (More) - The film medium has a very large potential to convey thoughts about history to the public. Previous studies of historical film have focused on analyzing the films. The purpose of this master’s thesis is instead to find patterns in the effect the historical elements have on the films' narrative, as well as how they value history. To achieve this, two sub-questions have been formulated.
• Do the historical elements have a decorative function or are they important to the story?
• Is it history that creates conflict in the story or is the course of events driven by universal aspects?
The material used is the ten highest-grossing historical films in terms of ticket sales that premiered in theaters between 1990 and 2009. Theoretically, the thesis takes its inspiration from Rasmus Greider's concept of histosphere, which means that historical films construct a model of a historical reality that enables the audience to experience a historical period using semiotics and audiovisual stimuli.
The thesis consists of narrative analysis that is focused on semiotics based on categories that represent different parts of the film's historical reality. The categories are settings, costumes, and props. The results show that the historical elements are important for the story of the films, and it is often history that constitutes the source of conflict. The setting is the most important element. The films often present a negative picture of history.
The results also show that there are four dominant patterns in how the films use history. They are categorized as follows:
• Constructive.
• Oppositional.
• Applying.
• Decorative. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9122977
- author
- Sivhed, Jakob LU
- supervisor
-
- Isak Hammar LU
- organization
- course
- HISS33 20231
- year
- 2023
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Historical films, Historical culture, Histosphere
- language
- English
- id
- 9122977
- date added to LUP
- 2023-10-02 15:20:30
- date last changed
- 2023-10-02 15:20:30
@misc{9122977,
abstract = {{The film medium has a very large potential to convey thoughts about history to the public. Previous studies of historical film have focused on analyzing the films. The purpose of this master’s thesis is instead to find patterns in the effect the historical elements have on the films' narrative, as well as how they value history. To achieve this, two sub-questions have been formulated.
• Do the historical elements have a decorative function or are they important to the story?
• Is it history that creates conflict in the story or is the course of events driven by universal aspects?
The material used is the ten highest-grossing historical films in terms of ticket sales that premiered in theaters between 1990 and 2009. Theoretically, the thesis takes its inspiration from Rasmus Greider's concept of histosphere, which means that historical films construct a model of a historical reality that enables the audience to experience a historical period using semiotics and audiovisual stimuli.
The thesis consists of narrative analysis that is focused on semiotics based on categories that represent different parts of the film's historical reality. The categories are settings, costumes, and props. The results show that the historical elements are important for the story of the films, and it is often history that constitutes the source of conflict. The setting is the most important element. The films often present a negative picture of history.
The results also show that there are four dominant patterns in how the films use history. They are categorized as follows:
• Constructive.
• Oppositional.
• Applying.
• Decorative.}},
author = {{Sivhed, Jakob}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Opportunities and limitations of the past : a study of historical films}},
year = {{2023}},
}