David Lynch's Twin Peaks and the Gothic Tradition
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Miroslav Řepa David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and the Gothic Tradition Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D. 2016 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D. for his kind help, support and valuable advice. Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 5 1 The Gothic Tradition ........................................................................................................... 12 2 Elements of American Gothic in Film and Television .......................................................... 27 3 The World of David Lynch ................................................................................................... 40 4 Twin Peaks Exposed ............................................................................................................ 63 5 Lynch’s Use of Sound and Music and Its Specific Deployment in Twin Peaks .................... 94 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 111 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 114 Introduction David Lynch is a renowned author, visual artist and film director whose work encompasses a whole range of genres. His style and form are distinctive and most of his pieces of work, be it from the realm of fine arts, filmmaking or even music, bear common features of surrealism, peculiarity and bizarreness. Lynch, in his work, intentionally deforms and twists conventional approaches to delineate the narrative, its plot, composition and setting with the aim to create new reality presented from a different perspective. Through his ability to produce such new existence Lynch draws the audience into the story to let them move on a blurred territory in which reality and fantasy intermingle into an oneiric experience. This thesis deals with Lynch’s work and its aspects related to film noir and Gothic Fiction with particular attention paid to identification of these conditions, elements and narrative means present in Twin Peaks as a television series introduced in 1990 as a product that is believed my many to have set a new direction in presenting televised shows, especially for its unorthodox narrative technique and format. This work provides a concise delineation of David Lynch’s career; it examines and identifies the main impetuses that directed him and motivated him to pursue the career of an artist. It pays attention to the influence of Lynch’s family throughout his childhood years related to the locations he was growing up, the way he perceived the environment, as well as the impact of his parent’s upbringing, especially the role of his father in relation to Lynch’s perception of the surrounding world that has left a distinctive imprint and influenced his style and method of work. The thesis also defines the basis of Lynch’s highly analytical approach towards the world around him and his urge to examine various events and places not as things that can be seen on the surface 5 but by going deep under which allows him to observe, study and depict subjects from a completely different perspective, which may be identified as one of the typical features of Lynch’s work – to show the viewer that one and the same thing or event may be interpreted differently with each of such interpretations bringing a diverse, yet true image or feeling. The double view or double approach is one of the typical features of Gothic Fiction. It represents the principle of duality, a principle that is very much of Lynch’s interest as it complies with his Hindu views. The double principle is also closely related to the uncanny phenomenon as one of the primary elements that define the gothic discourse. The principle objective of the thesis is to provide a detailed examination of the Twin Peaks series supported with general analysis of Lynch’s work the aim of which is to establish these as pieces of work that bear typical elements related to Gothic Fiction, Dark Romanticism and film noir with respect to both visual and auditive aspects. It also lays emphasis on the importance of use of nonverbal or subliminal means of communication aimed at viewers’ subconscious and its influence on apprehension of the presented statement. The thesis further takes into account and deals with Lynch’s work and with Twin Peaks in particular as postmodern texts which, among other specifics, reflect the issues related to feminine aspects, such as the role and place of women within a society, the use of symbols, their origination and relation to myths. Chapter One of the work defines the impulses that lead to the dismissal of the Classicist ideal and the rise of Romanticism in relation to the social and political changes that took place in that period of time and it also defines the origins of the term Gothic. It delineates the way original realistic depiction of life was gradually replaced by laying emphasis on emotions, mysteries, unusualness and the supernatural phenomena. This chapter also deals with examination of this newly emerging genre 6 concerning its origins and other influences that had impact on it, especially those related to German Schauerroman and French roman noir and presents some of the most influential French and German writers and their prominent works. It defines the basic objectives of Gothic novel, including the setting, archetypes and typical plots. A significant part of the chapter deals with development of Gothic novel from its early works of the second half of the eighteenth century and its influence on the later emerging American Gothic. The work also articulates the basic differences in the themes of the gothic discourse in Europe and oversees, delineating essential aspects of American gothic fiction which shares a number of elements common with the European narrative but also presents new elements that are typically of American nature as a response to the local environment. The main aim of Chapter Two is delineation of transformation of the purely literary genre into new, visual means of expression. It describes the events and achievements related to the industrial revolution, introducing new technologies such as the invention of photography, development of camera and later the film camera, followed by introduction of silent, black and white film and the birth of film industry and its main driving force represented by Hollywood. All the mentioned inventions and events are depicted on the background of the ever growing class and social differences which marked the Victorian era in particular in relation to the principles and aspects of the gothic narration. The chapter also provides information on how the silent era of black and white film and the post WWI German Expressionism influenced establishment of film noir that emerged after WWII, introducing the post crisis era of American economic growth, dominance and consumerism with its typical traits and representations. It further explains the political Cold War background, the Red Scare phenomenon and the anti-Soviet and anti-communist mood that also influenced the film 7 industry through the 1950s to the 1970s and the coming of neo noir, marked by new generation of directors that set the direction towards the 1980s and 1990s films, including the role of television and its programme formats on the background of a gothic story. Chapter Three examines David Lynch’s career from his early beginnings, through the student years up to the point in which he decided to take arts as his profession, first as a visual artist and later, upon his experimental period with film, as a filmmaker. It depicts the influences that played role in Lynch’s perception of the surrounding world and his interpretations of it including other authors, such as Franz Kafka, who had significant influence on Lynch’s work. One of the principal features of work of David Lynch is the way he was influenced by his environment at individual stages of his developing career and how are these experiences projected to his films. The chapter also defines Lynch as an auteur and an artist for whom creative freedom represents one of the most important aspects of his art work followed by introduction and analyses of his films that demonstrate typical features of the gothic discourse as well as the typical style and methods used in his production. The penultimate chapter examines Lynch’s Twin Peaks series on which he cooperated with Mark Frost. It defines the series from the point of its narrative structure and an innovative show format. It aims at individual aspects ascribed to a gothic discourse and performs an analysis of the plotline by identifying individual gothic features on a number of examples taken from the actual scenes and parts of the series. It concentrates on many of the aspects of Gothic Fiction an supplements them with specific examples, dealing with the issues including the motives of wild surroundings, oppressive men, heroines, sexual abuse, rape, doppelgangers, murder, slavery, hidden passages, dark hallways,