Date of Submission
10-2021
Type of Work
Exegesis and Creative Work
Principal Supervisor
Dr. Toby Wren
Keywords
Film studies; screenwriting; feminist theory; intersectional feminism; representation; Asian studies; media studies, culture, communications, self-representation
Audience
General (G) - suitable for everyone
Abstract
This thesis investigates how representation and self-representation are constructed in screenplays. Film scholarship has primarily focused on the constructions of identities by examining the exhibited film product. The screenplay, which forms the foundation of the film text, is rarely examined for its impact on issues of representation and self-representation. Nelmes and Selbo’s ‘Women Screenwriters: An International Guide’ only addresses representation twice and does not reference self-representation within its 900 pages (Nelmes & Selbo, 2015).
Feminist film criticism of cinema has been heavily critical of the patriarchal male gaze in response to positioning women within film. The works of De Lauretis (1984), Hooks (2010) and Harris (2006) assess the representation of women in cinema through male spectatorship.Their examination of how Asian women are represented in cinema, the imperial and patriarchal authority designates a heavy hypersexualisation of Asian women in Western cinema. The lack of intersectionality within feminist analysis of films offers little understanding of the ways in which self-representation is achieved. This thesis examines how self-representation is showcased in screenwriting by examining scripts from Asian-American authors Lulu Wang and Alice Wu. These two screenwriters were chosen for their depiction of cultural identity.
The combination of screenwriting theory and textual analysis applied with a post-colonial feminist lens offers insight into how Asian American women represent themselves without the constraints of imperial patriarchal filmmaking. Lulu Wang’s script The Farewell (2019) and Alice Wu’s script The Half of it (2019) showcase first generational experiences and cultural hybridity through the authors’ lived experience. Using a combination of novelistic and semi-autobiographical characters, both authors insert parts of their identities into the screenplay, establishing what Ferrell calls a structured use of voice (Ferrell, 2017).
Showcasing the influence of multiple cultures within film, the scripts use a combination of film structures traditionally found in both Western and Hollywood cinema and East Asian cinema. Within both scripts, the use of dialogue and multiple languages explore code-switching between realities and consciousness to share the
author's lived experience as Asian women to the audience. Consequently, how self-representation is achieved within the screenplay, from the construction and development of female protagonists to the screenplay structure and the arrangement of dialogue and language, offers insight into self-representation formulation. Rather than reproducing cultural and gender representations, this exegesis examines the consistencies and complexities of media representation and explicitly explores the potential that screenplays offer when determining self-representation. This thesis argues that when removing outdated influences of structural patriarchy and Western dominance from cultural and gender representations, that there is more potential for creativity within the screenwriting practice. Removing this implements a merging of influences to coexist and create new perspectives. Ultimately, as an Asian Australian woman, this thesis examines how authors like me choose to represent themselves. This issue is important because so often, cultural hybridity is perceived as having to identify with one culture or the other, and representation of living and existing in a space between these cultures is rarely demonstrated. As Wang states in an interview, “People are always asking me about the importance of representation and identity in relation to making The Farewell and of course, those things are really important to me – thinking about my identity and exploring my identity in the west” (Wang, 2019).
Recommended Citation
Larkin, K. (2021). Identity before production: An analysis of female Asian representation within screenwriting [Masters dissertation, SAE University College]. Creo.