Perversion and national subjectivity in English Canadian cinema
Abstract (summary)
In the last decade, English Canadian film-makers have tended to utilize perversion as a central image in their narratives. This speaks to the fundamental in-betweenness that characterizes the condition of national subjectivity in this country. The English Canadian national body finds itself positioned between the competing discourses of homogeneity and plurality, colonizer and colonized, centre and margin. This innate division is rooted in the psychological structures that underpin subjectivity, ones which work within a counter-hegemonic and masochistic model of understanding. The national narrative that is consequently produced by this ‘perversion chic’ cinema is one that subverts binary systems of identification and articulates a new, queer positionality in the formation of a national fantasmatic. Through the examination of five representative films from this group, it will be demonstrated that English Canada is a nation that fails to adhere to the hegemonic national archetype precisely because of its always already queer nature.
Indexing (details)
Motion pictures;
Film studies
0385: Canadian studies