‘“A dream within a dream”: The politics of dislocation in Head On and Picnic at Hanging Rock

TY - CHAP

T1 - ‘“A dream within a dream”

T2 - The politics of dislocation in Head On and Picnic at Hanging Rock

AU - Shachar, Hila

PY - 2018/10/16

Y1 - 2018/10/16

N2 - Ana Kokkinos’s Head On (1998) and Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) are Australian film adaptations that take as their central themes the processes of cultural adaptation within the aesthetic framework of screen adaptation. As reworkings of iconic Australian literary texts that explore individuals and cultures who can and cannot adapt to their new country and environments, they do not simply transpose their narratives to the screen, but also highlight that the process of adaptation is an ideological cultural practice requiring the sensory response of the body. Exploring issues of colonisation, immigration, multiculturalism and belonging in Australian culture, this article will demonstrate how these two films ultimately locate adaptation not simply within spatial environments (such as the modern Australian immigrant city and the colonised wild landscape), but also, within an ideological discourse of belonging and non-belonging. I will argue that such a discourse compels a visceral response from the audience to participate in the adaptation process, thereby highlighting how both the politics and aesthetic of these adaptations rely on a process of audience dislocation.

AB - Ana Kokkinos’s Head On (1998) and Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) are Australian film adaptations that take as their central themes the processes of cultural adaptation within the aesthetic framework of screen adaptation. As reworkings of iconic Australian literary texts that explore individuals and cultures who can and cannot adapt to their new country and environments, they do not simply transpose their narratives to the screen, but also highlight that the process of adaptation is an ideological cultural practice requiring the sensory response of the body. Exploring issues of colonisation, immigration, multiculturalism and belonging in Australian culture, this article will demonstrate how these two films ultimately locate adaptation not simply within spatial environments (such as the modern Australian immigrant city and the colonised wild landscape), but also, within an ideological discourse of belonging and non-belonging. I will argue that such a discourse compels a visceral response from the audience to participate in the adaptation process, thereby highlighting how both the politics and aesthetic of these adaptations rely on a process of audience dislocation.

UR - https://benjamins.com/catalog/fillm.9.24sha

U2 - 10.1075/fillm.9.24sha

DO - 10.1075/fillm.9.24sha

M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)

SN - 9789027201492

T3 - FILLM Studies in Languages and Literatures

SP - 399

EP - 414

BT - Where is Adaptation?

A2 - Hermansson , Casie

A2 - Zepernick , Janet

PB - John Benjamins Publishing Company

CY - Amsterdam/Philadelphia

ER -