Behind Closed Doors: Film as Text and the Exploration of Reading Practices in Sanctioned Institutional Abuse

摘要

This dissertation brings critical visual culture studies to bear on mediatized representations of sanctioned institutional abuse. In particular, my dissertation seeks to explore and analyze the dynamics of the visual culture in reel/real social dramas of sanctioned institutional abuse, relations of power and the construction/destruction of oppositional voices struggling to seek justice. Focusing on Turner's work in understanding social dramas, I contextualize three "true account" films to explore how cultural studies, film form, function, and theory play critical roles in spectator viewing and the development of viewer reading practices. I argue that actions perpetrated on oppositional voices and subsequent discovery of truth create a visual discourse that makes an impact on the social order and, and how reel cinematic representations of this visual discourse impact viewers in developing real reading practices about sanctioned institutional abuse in their everyday lives.