Empathy, emotion, and environment in alternative Australian landscape cinema: The case of Rabbit-Proof Fence
Empathy, emotion, and environment in alternative Australian landscape cinema: The case of Rabbit-Proof Fence Journal Article
Emotions: History, Culture, Society
- Author(s): Alexa Weik von, Mossner
- Published: 2019
- Publisher: Brill
- Volume: 3
Abstract: The article aims to complement contextual analyses of the political, ideological and commercial uses of natural environments in Australian landscape cinema by exploring from a cognitive perspective exactly how such environments are foregrounded in ways that affect viewers’ emotional relationships to both characters and the environments themselves. Phillip Noyce’s Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) serves as an example of a film that aims for a realistic portrayal of the physical hardship of the Australian outback, while also using that cinematic environment strategically to reinforce viewers’ emotional attachment to its young heroines and, ultimately, to push a political argument that runs counter to the conservative national ideology that informs much of traditional Australian landscape cinema.
- Urls: https://brill.com/view/journals/ehcs/3/2/article-p245_5.xml
- Publisher Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
- Keywords: Rabbit-Proof Fence, empathy, emotion, cognitive film theory, ecocriticism, Australian landscape cinema