“Let them look at you and see only the eternal.” – Conceptualising Fictional Intimacy in The Crown and the Genre of the Royal Biopic MASTERARBEIT zur Erlangung des Mastergrades an der Kultur- und Gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg Eingereicht von Maria Baumgartner BA 1121494 Fachbereich Anglistik und Amerikanistik Gutachter: Univ.- Prof. Dr. Ralph J. Poole, MA Salzburg, Dezember 2017 Eidesstattliche Erklärung Ich erkläre hiermit eidesstattlich durch meine eigenhändige Unterschrift, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig verfasst und keine anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel verwendet habe. Alle Stellen, die wörtlich oder inhaltlich den angegebenen Quellen entnommen wurden, sind als solche kenntlich gemacht. Die vorliegende Arbeit wurde bisher in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form noch nicht als Masterarbeit eingereicht. I hereby declare and confirm that this thesis is entirely the result of my own original work. Where other sources of information have been used, they have been indicated as such and properly acknowledged. I further declare that this or similar work has not been submitted for credit elsewhere. ______________________________________________ Datum, Unterschrift Abstract As one of the most well-established representations of monarchy through modern media, the genre of the royal biopic is dominated by its objective to portray a historically truthful picture of monarchy while simultaneously giving private insights into the life of the sovereign and their immediate environment. In order to achieve this goal, contemporary royal biopics undertake a combined approach of placing fictional depictions of private events and conversations against a setting which is dominated by the historic events of the past. The present thesis aims to analyse this genre-specific approach by proposing the concept of fictional intimacy, which argues for fictional employments within the narrative of a biopic to foster the creation of a companionate relationship between the narrative and the audience. This proposed conceptual framework is subsequently applied to the Netflix original television series The Crown, which covers the life and reign of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II and has been praised to have revolutionised its genre by re-negotiating its pre-established conventions. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the current academic discourse by successfully defining one of the genre’s most essential cinematic strategies through the proposal of a conceptual framework which strives to be applicable to past as well as future royal biopics. Als etablierte Darstellungsform der Monarchie in neuen Medien erstrebt das Genre des Royal Biopics die Veranschaulichung von sowohl geschichtlichen Ereignissen, als auch privaten Einblicken in das Leben der königlichen Familie. Um dieses genrespezifische Ziel zu erreichen, vereinen zeitgenössische Royal Biopics beide Aspekte indem sie fiktive Darstellungen des königlichen Privatlebens mit einem historisch akkuraten Handlungsrahmen kombinieren. Die vorliegende Masterarbeit diskutiert diese Herangehensweise durch die Konzipierung von fiktiver Intimität als Strategie, welche die Erzeugung einer engeren Beziehung zwischen dem Publikum und der geschilderten Handlung fördert, ausgeübt durch die fiktive Darstellung von intimen Momenten. Das vorgeschlagene Konzept wird anschließend im Rahmen von The Crown, der erfolgreichen Serie über das Leben von Königin Elizabeth II aus dem Jahr 2016, angewandt. Ziel dieser Masterarbeit ist die Schaffung eines Konzeptes, welches zum wissenschaftlichen Diskurs des Genres beiträgt und darüber hinaus Relevanz für weitere Produktionen aufweist. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ralph Poole MA, whose office was always open whenever I was facing troubles or needed advice. Thank you for encouraging my enthusiasm for the topic from the very beginning and steering me in the right direction when the challenge seemed too overwhelming. Thank you also to Isabella Aufschnaiter and Madeleine Quast, not only for taking the time to proof-read the first drafts of my work, but also for your friendship and continuous support. I couldn’t have done it without you! I would also like to thank my family, especially my parents Rosi and Hans. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to travel, which allowed me to realise my own potential and sparked my love for the subject of my thesis in the first place. Finally, I would like to thank my brother Andi for selflessly letting me use his Netflix account so I could watch The Crown. I promise I’ll get my own account soon. Outline 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 2. The Royal Biopic .......................................................................................................... 3 2.1. Genre Definitions and Concepts ............................................................................ 3 2.2. Recent Shifts .......................................................................................................... 7 3. Monarchy and National Identity ................................................................................. 10 3.1. The Roots of Royal Fever .................................................................................... 10 3.2. The Monarchy’s Place in Popular Imagination ................................................... 16 4. The Role of Intimacy .................................................................................................. 19 5. Fictional Intimacy in the Royal Biopic ...................................................................... 22 5.1. Concept Definition ............................................................................................... 22 5.2. Concept Strategy .................................................................................................. 23 5.3. De-mystifying the Monarchy ............................................................................... 28 6. The Crown .................................................................................................................. 30 6.1. Background Information ...................................................................................... 30 6.2. Peter Morgan’s The Queen and The Audience ..................................................... 32 6.3. Historical Outline and Content Overview ........................................................... 35 6.4. Reception ............................................................................................................. 40 7. Fictional Intimacy in The Crown ................................................................................ 43 7.1. Physical Intimacy ................................................................................................. 44 7.1.1. Nudity ............................................................................................................ 45 7.1.2. References to Sexual Encounters .................................................................. 48 7.1.3. Illness and Physical Conditions .................................................................... 52 7.2. Verbal Intimacy ................................................................................................... 58 7.2.1. Private Letters as Tool for Intimate Communication .................................... 58 7.2.2. Swearing and Other “Unroyal” Uses of Language ....................................... 64 7.3. Spiritual Intimacy ................................................................................................ 70 7.3.1. Elizabeth: Monarch or Wife? ........................................................................ 72 7.3.2. Winston Churchill: The Dismantling of a Legend ........................................ 81 7.4. Intellectual Intimacy ............................................................................................ 85 8. The Crown in the Current Cultural Context .............................................................. 93 9. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 96 10. Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 99 1. Introduction With its roots dating back as far as Shakespeare’s Plantagenet plays, the royal biopic has established itself as one of the most historical genres still celebrating great success within the contemporary cinematic discourse. Portraying the lives of monarchs through mass media, royal biopics are faced with the challenge of fulfilling the demand of historical accuracy while simultaneously satisfying the audience’s need for exclusive insights into the lives of ineffable public figures. One of the most well-renowned writers of the genre, Peter Morgan, has described his notion of approaching this challenge in his latest production, the Netflix original series The Crown, as follows: “Of course, I have to imagine the private conversations, and those are necessarily fiction, but I try to make everything truthful even if you can’t know whether it’s accurate.” (Sulcas, online) Morgan argues for his royal biopic to follow a combined approach of placing the portrayal of private moments against a historically truthful backdrop, which allows for his production to be neither prurient nor too respectful