Abstract

Studies have shown that accented filmmaking features and strategies are indeed appearing in wide-ranging films of contemporary cinemas. The main focus of this paper is to analyze Viduthalai Moochu, an internal exilic Eelam-Tamil film from Sri Lanka, using a concept derived from Hamid Naficy’s theorization of An Accented Cinema known as the “preoccupation with the place.” The concept is cinematically expressed through the open, closed, and third spacetime cinematic formations. It needs to be noted here that Naficy’s theory offers a range of accented cinematic features that express accent in the film. However, the paper will only focus on the film’s spatial representations that are configured according to the space-time formations. Space-time formations are cinematic features that are employed to produce and reproduce the “accent” through cinematic representations of spaces and places rendered in the film. The configurations of the space-time formations will be used as the basis to examine Viduthalai Moochu, a film that does not seem to demonstrate the familiar conventions of filmmaking. The film mainly grapples with themes that enunciate the Eelam-Tamil displacement and deterritorialization in the internal exilic situation. The analysis shows how a particular version of alternative filmmaking strategy exclusively uses spatial representations to render themes of displacement and deterritorialization. The findings prove that the makers of Viduthalai Moochu have indeed employed the space-time formations to highlight the displacement and the deterritorialization of the Eelam-Tamil community through cinematic spatial representations.


Keywords

accent, deterritorialization, displacement, preoccupation, space-time

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Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.

International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)