Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.5392/IJoC.2013.9.4.086

Ambivalent Reading on the Story of the Colonialism in The Piano  

Park, Seung Hyun (School of Communications Hallym University)
Nam, Jae Il (Dep. of Journalism and Mass Communication Kyungpook University)
Publication Information
International Journal of Contents / v.9, no.4, 2013 , pp. 86-91 More about this Journal
Abstract
The Piano, directed by Jane Campion in 1993, became a sensational movie with a special theme focusing on gender and sexual identity, when it won Palme d'Or in the Cannes Film Festival at the same year. Most of the critics discuss the representation of Victorian sexual repression in the colonial setting. But the critical acclaim tends to view the existence of the Maori people and the colonial setting as the backdrop of the narrative, although this colonial background is constructed as a medium to accelerate the release of the repressed passion. Regarding the race issue as a compelling discourse that gets left out of "feminist" accounts, this paper analyzes The Piano, focusing on both how the story of colonialism is constituted in the film and how the film represents ambivalent images of the Maori people, the native of New Zealand.
Keywords
The Piano; Jane Campion; Maori; race representation; gender identity;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 h. k. bhabha, The location of culture, London & New York: Routledge, 1994.
2 h. k. bhabha, The location of culture, London & New York: Routledge, 1994, p. 19.
3 Arif Dirlik includes the discussion about the crisis of the European identity in a postcolonial society in his article; see A. Dirlik, "The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism in the Age of Global Capitalism," Critical Inquiry, vol. 20, no.4, 1994, pp. 328-356.   DOI   ScienceOn
4 L. Dyson, "The return of the repressed? Whiteness, femininity and colonialism in The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 268.
5 S. Gillett, "Lips and fingers: Jane Campion's The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 283.
6 S. Gillett, "Lips and fingers: Jane Campion's The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 272.
7 S. Gillett, "Lips and fingers: Jane Campion's The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 271.
8 S. Gillett, "Lips and fingers: Jane Campion's The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 285.
9 L. Pihama, "What counts as difference and what differences count: gender, race and the politics of difference," in Johnston, Patricia & Pihama, Leonie (1995), The Worlds of Maori Women. Auckland: Penguin Books, 1995, p. 240.
10 L. Dyson, "The return of the repressed? Whiteness, femininity and colonialism in The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 275.
11 Helen Barlow, "Interview with Jane Campion", http://www.ifi.uio.no/-magnush/Piano/campion.html (accessed 10 August 2005).
12 L. Dyson, "The return of the repressed? Whiteness, femininity and colonialism in The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3 , 1995, p. 267.   DOI
13 L. Dyson, "The return of the repressed? Whiteness, femininity and colonialism in The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 268.
14 S. Gordon, "I clipped your wing, that's all: auto-eroticism and the female spectator in The Piano debate," Screen, vol. 37, no. 2, 1996, pp. 200-201.
15 N. Seuffert, "Shaping the Modern Nation: Colonial Marriage Law, Polygamy and Concubinage in Aotearoa New Zealand," Law Text Culture, vol. 7, no. 1, 2003, pp. 186-220.
16 M. K. Zeitzen, Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis. New York: Berg, In this book, the author emphasizes that polygamy is not just an non-Western practice, but also exists in modern Western societies, 2008.
17 S. Bruzzi, "Tempestuous petticoats: costume and desire in The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 265.
18 S. Gillett, "Lips and fingers: Jane Campion's The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 278.
19 S. Bruzzi, "Tempestuous petticoats: costume and desire in The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 261.
20 S. Gillett, "Lips and fingers: Jane Campion's The Piano," Screen, vol. 36, no. 3, 1995, p. 282.