Browsing by Person "Cronin, Theresa"

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The BBFC and the regulation of BDSM
(University of Sunderland, 2014-04-24) Cronin, Theresa
Censorship cultures: The search for authenticity - the case of A Serbian Film
(Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2014-03-19) Cronin, Theresa
Film as Rape Culture: The Ethics of Aversion in Sr’an Spasojevi’s A Serbian Film (2010)
(The International Association for Media and Communication Research, 2015-07-13) Cronin, Theresa
This paper deals with the issue of the representation of rape within contemporary cinema. It begins with the current UK regulatory guidelines set out by the BBFC which censure any apparent endorsement of depictions of rape, by encouraging an aesthetic of trauma and aversion. However, I will argue that this commitment to aversion may actively work against a feminist politic by transposing the everyday lived reality of rape into a realm of 'hyperbolic shock' (Kennedy and Smith, 2012). A case in point being the problematic depiction of rape within A Serbian Film (2010), a film which the director has vehemently argued is an allegory for post-war Serbia, leading us to view the film as a kind of 'return of the repressed' of the Balkan war, specifically in the use of rape as a weapon of war within the conflict.This film will be considered in the context of a number of recent fictional and documentary representations of war rape, such as Esma's Secret (2006), City of Life and Death (2010), Flowers of War (2011), and In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), Calling the Ghosts (1996), Operation Fine Girl (2001), Weapon of War (2007), and The Greatest Silence (2007). Unlike these films A Serbian Film abandons a realist aesthetic and borrows heavily from horror and exploitation cinema, which in itself, may be a cause for consternation. Nevertheless, the film can still be read as a sincere example of 'trauma cinema'. Spasojevi''s narrative plays out in a 'flashback' structure, and as such produces a semblance of the experience of Nachträglichkeit within the viewer. That is, a sense of reliving an event both through the sequencing of the narrative, and in the imaginative reconstruction of the plot. But more than this, the film does not seek the viewer's empathy or understanding, rather it attempts to produce a heightened affective state within the viewer; of fear, disgust, horror and above all aversion. The viewer is invited not to witness the horror of rape but to endure it. However, A Serbian Film, also demands that we sympathise with the unwitting aggressor, and while the final scenes of mute pain and trauma suffered by the once picture perfect family might go some way to instilling a sense of tragedy and loss in the viewer, it does nothing to recover the voices of a string of women within the film who will remain forever silent, and whose bodies conform to the objectifying aesthetics of exploitation cinema.While my central point within this paper will be to argue that aversion alone cannot guarantee the acceptability of images of rape, this paper attempts to grapple with the wider issue of rape and representation within our culture. That is, to pose the more troubling question of how the quotidian reality of rape can be handled by filmmakers without recourse to the codes and conventions of exploitation on the one hand, or equally troublesome clichés and euphemisms on the other (Projanski, 2001).
Historicizing the media eﬀects debate
(Routledge, 2014-09-15) Cronin, Theresa; Conboy, Martin; Steel, John
Looking back over the last two centuries it would seem that debates over media eﬀects are inextricable from the rise of mass media. As far back as the 1850s lurid popular ﬁctions, sensationalized newspaper coverage and blood-soaked, spectacular and thrilling entertainments had all found purchase within a growing urban culture. Social commentators of the era saw these ever more sensational popular entertainments as a clear symptom of social and moral decline and argued that such depictions were likely to incite further instances of immorality and crime (Murdock, 2001). However, it was the arrival of cinema that prompted the development of media eﬀects research as we know it today. So while in the early days of cinema public fears circulated around the potential for the darkness of the movie theatre itself to lead to crime and immoral behavior (Currie, 1907; Fosdick, 1911; Kuhn, 1988; Butsch, 2002), and the very real danger presented by the highly inﬂammable ﬁlm stock (Kuhn, 1988; Czitrom, 1992; Merritt, 1976; Vorspan, 2000), these soon gave way to a perception that the ﬁlms themselves might be “injurious to public morality … to encourage or incite to crime, or … lead to disorder” (Kuhn, 1988: 20). Indeed many writers at the time claimed that moviegoers were likely to imitate the crimes they witnessed on screen (Butsch, 2002). For example, Hugo Münsterberg, a professor at Harvard, argued that the intensity with which the plays take hold of the audience cannot remain without social eﬀects … it is evident that such a penetrating inﬂuence must be fraught with dangers. The more vividly the impressions force themselves on the mind the more easily they must become starting points for imitation and other motor responses.
Media effects and the subjectification of film regulation
(University of Texas Press, 2009) Cronin, Theresa
Questions of censorship and textual authenticity: A Serbian Film
(Academic Conferences London, 2014-06-28) Cronin, Theresa
This Paper analyses horror fans' online discussions of A Serbian Film (Spasojevic, Serbia, 2010), perhaps the most heavily censored film in the UK in the last decade and a half for its portrayal of an ageing porn star unwittingly drawn into the world of the snuff movie. While many industry reports on downloading or file-sharing discuss the practices of participants in terms of piracy, within the context of the horror fan community the meaning and function of downloading differs significantly from this economically motivated interpretation. Indeed, within the context of worldwide regulatory practices that have sought to both cut and ban A Serbian Film, these activities may be the only means to gain access to the 'definitive' or 'complete' version of the film. The search for copies of the uncut film online might therefore partly be seen as a search for the 'authentic text' on the one hand, but on the other hand, it can also be suggested that this shadow economy of film is a way for genre fans to perform their subcultural identity. That is, access to and knowledge of 'uncut' and 'screener copies' of such films might be seen as a key way of demonstrating one's social and subcultural capital.
Rape and trauma: The ethics of aversion in Srđan Spasojević’s A Serbian Film (2010)
(Cine-Excess, 2015-11-14) Cronin, Theresa
Representing war rape
(Middlesex University, 2017-02-23) Cronin, Theresa