A socio-cultural reading of Power in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the waves, Dogville, and The House That Jack Built

The recent years have seen a change in our approach to the notion of truth. From the transcendentalist notions of the world of ideals, we have now developed a postmodern concept of truth as a dialectical opposition of many disparate facts. As an exemplary postmodern filmmaker, three of Lars von Tiers movies will be discussed, revealing a Nietzschean genealogical approach and Foucauldian concepts of discursive institutions of power: Dogville (۲۰۰۴), Breaking the Waves (۱۹۹۶), and The House that Jack Built (۲۰۱۸). Dogville reveals the dialectical tension between the idea of America as the land of opportunities and the oppressive and exploitative treatment of the locals of the girl that has taken refuge in their village. Breaking the Waves shows the fate of its protagonist, Bess, who is destroyed when she begins to act against the discursive norms of the society. Finally, The House that Jack Built reveals the dialectical position of its antihero, Jack, as both an architect of a system as well as the free-spirited yet twisted artist who opposes it. All three challenge the audience’s perceptions about reality and truth.

کلیدواژه ها:

genealogy ، discourse ، power ، postmodernism