FASCIST ASSHOLES! En multimodal diskursanalys av representation och politiska domäner i filmen “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Abstract

This analysis researches how multimodal resources are being used in the film The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014) to mediate and create representations of politics and power, focusing on visual political communication and the portrayal of fascism. This analysis is based on Stuart Hall's “Representation” (1997) and Sam Browse “Cognitive Rhetoric” (2018) and Browse summary of The domains of politics from Van Dijk (1997). The study is based on a constructivist and mimetic perspective on representation, in accordance with Stuart Hall (1997). In Hall's work, meaning is understood as socially constructed through cultural and linguistic systems rather than as something inherent in material objects. Linguistic systems are not just the written or verbal language, it can also be clothes and other things, and the importance lies in what they do, not what they are (Hall, 1997:5). Methodologically this analysis/study uses a qualitative multimodal discourse analysis. The analysis analyses chosen scenes from the film to focus on details and to really be able to capture the interplay between the visual and the auditory (colour, clothing, text, body language and conversation). This analysis shows that meaning is not created by the elements themselves, it is created through their function as signs in larger representational systems. Clothes may not be the only thing that creates symbols or signs, but the cultural interpretation enables the audience to understand what specific characters or body language together actually symbolises. This study also shows how characters are positioned within power structures through multimodal and audiovisual resources. Some characters are designed to portray the subordinates and that shows representations of exclusion because of some choices such as how they act and how they move their body. The opposite of subordinate characters also exists to show these power structures, this with more privileged characters who can use this privilege to show more power. One result from this analysis highlights how this film, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), works as a representational system where audiovisual elements are being used to create and communicate some political ideas. Analysing this film from a constructivist and mimetic perspective, makes it clear how meaning actually arises in the interaction between material elements and cultural elements. It also makes it clear how popular culture can act as a base for creating and communicating ideologies and politics. Finally, this analysis/study shows that multimodal analyses are important to show how politics are communicated and created in films because this enables interpretation of representations. Since this study shows how politics are communicated and created in films, it is significant to the media- and communication science in the area of political communication through popular culture and the media in that field.