Reel trauma : contemporary screenings of Northern Irish conflict (1996-2005)

Abstract

Since the first IRA ceasefire in 1994, construction of discursive memory in Northern Ireland’s cultural spheres has politicised and sanitised historical trauma. This thesis identifies audio-visual culture as being exemplary in this regard. Based on their production within a specific historical period and common address of historical trauma, the selected works are considered collectively. Although a unified body of work, these film and television texts nonetheless display great diversity in their modes of representation and discursive constellations. Analyses rely upon an extensive range of critical theories, whose multiplicity reflects the diversity of representational strategies and discursive formations across the body of work. Theories emanating from the fields of memory and trauma studies, anthropology and political philosophy conjoin with theories of discourse to serve the objective of this thesis - to precisely explicate how and why contemporary audio-visual culture remembers historical trauma. In performing this function, the thesis considers each film and television text’s idiosyncratic adaptation of the drama-documentary format and simultaneously positions the body of work in a collective relationship with historical and contemporary socio-political contexts. The press reception of these films in Northern Ireland is also considered. Analyses of film reviews of the selected works highlight the discursive persistence of historical trauma in Northern Ireland's public sphere.