Communications in Humanities Research
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Communications in Humanities Research
Vol. 20, 07 December 2023
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Feminism in Vera Chytilová’s “Daisies”: Montage, Collage, and Symbol
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Abstract
Vera Chytilová’s “Daisies” offers a particular case to view how montage, collage, and symbolism could contribute to feminist cinema. “Daisies” was subject to censorship when it was first released for its rebellious story which strongly challenged the social norms of that time. Although it has been widely regarded as a surreal exploration of nihilism, it explores the deconstruction and reconstruction of female identity. This study adopts a feminist theory to investigate how this movie communicates its feminist ideals using a defamiliarized visual language system. Specifically, the study analyzes certain scenes in the movie with a particular focus on how “Daisies” challenges conventional gender roles and creates a feminism narrative. It figures out that montage expands the inner space of these characters; collage allows for the fragmentation of their identities; symbolism such as apple trees, apples, and other motifs carry additional thematic possibilities of temptation, sin, and female resistance. These stylistic choices and visual strategies present a fresh female perspective, encouraging the audience to question social norms and embrace unfiltered viewpoints. By upending conventionally male-centric ideas, the movie’s defamiliarized visual language reinforces feminist messages and helps us comprehend its complex artistic and thematic issues.
Keywords
Daises, feminism, montage, collage, sign
References
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4. Owen, J. L. (1966). Spoiled Aesthetics: Realism and Anti-Humanism in Věra Chytilová’s “Daisies”. Avant-Garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism, and the Sixties. Berghahn Books.
5. Geller, T. L. (2018). Thinking Sex Doing Gender, Watching Film. The Anthem Handbook of Screen Theory, edited by Hunter Vaughan and Tom Conley. Anthem Press.
6. Parvulescu, A. (2006) So We Will Go Bad: Cheekiness, Laughter, Film. Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, 62, 144-167.
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-183-4
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-184-1
- Published Date
- 07 December 2023
- Series
- Communications in Humanities Research
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7064
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7072
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7064/20/20231300
- Copyright
- 07 December 2023
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited