The concept of "cultural trauma" first emerged in Jeffrey Alexander's monograph Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity, which refers to "when members of a collective feel that they have suffered a terrible event that leaves an indelible mark on their collective consciousness and changes their future identity in a fundamental and irreversible way."
Based on this, the concept of "cultural trauma" needs to be understood from two levels: first, the connotation of "cultural trauma", which is based on intrusive and overwhelming experiences, and even breaks down beliefs or bonds between groups, and eventually gives birth to new collective consciousness and even collective memory. secondly, the socialization process of "cultural trauma"; Jeffrey Alexander proposed analytical dimensions such as carrying groups, the nature of suffering, and attribution of responsibility. Based on the above, this paper refers to the existing trauma narrative research and specific film texts, and attempts to gain insight into the trauma narrative strategy in disaster movies based on real events from three levels: trauma bearing group, trauma source construction, and trauma representation.
Narrative has a long history as a way for human beings to understand and reflect the world, and has gradually condensed into "structuralist linguistics-semiotic theory and structuralist poetics-mythological theory", among which representative scholars include Aristotélēs, Roland Barthes, Gérard Genette and so on. As one of the important branches of narratology, film narratology follows the semiotic context, mainly using pictures as indicator symbols to express the existence of objects, and gradually formed a series of scientific and operable film narrative analysis theories.
From the perspective of film grammar, Christian Metz has compiled a list of symbolic arrangement and conversion principles in film, that is, "eight types of independent segments", involving independent segments, non-temporal semantic segments, temporal semantic segments, bracketed semantic segments, descriptive semantic segments, narrative combination segments, alternate narrative semantic segments, and linear narrative semantic segments.
Francis Vanoye analyzes a large number of classic works and on the basis of comparing written narrative and film narrative, he proposes the basic components of film narrative: one is the combination of (un)heard and (un)seen film dialogue, and film narrative strategy based on action analysis; The second is voiceover, music-led themes, card subtitles and rhythm functions; The third is the form of lens description.
The fourth is to promote the film narrative through the characters' dialogue, oral narration, images, time markers and actions; The fifth is to borrow from Genet's narrative theory. Andre Gaudreault and François Jost sort out the diverse expressive materials in film narratives, covering secondary narratives, secondary narrators, oral narratives, audiovisual narratives, and narratives without narrators at the narrative level.
At the screen level, elements such as the agent narrator, subtitles, and human body are constructed; At the level of film narrative space, (un)performance space, external scenes, and different types of spatial relationships are divided; In the narrative time of the film, it involves timing, duration, and time frequency; At the viewpoint level, focusing, listening, mental image, and cognitive focusing are proposed.
Referring to the above narrative analysis theory on film, this paper intends to analyze the trauma bearing group, trauma source construction, and trauma representation presentation in disaster movies created based on real events from the aspects of plot content arrangement, character image shaping, visual picture design, dialogue narration, subtitle content communication, etc., and then gain insight into the trauma narrative strategy in the film.
In the thousands of years of human beings living on land, the struggle for political, national, and capital discourse power has never stopped, and at the same time, people's differentiated life rights and even life classes have been created. Unlike Foucault's daily order of life discipline, Giorgio Agamben emphasizes reflecting on biopolitics in emergency situations.
Especially in the context of risk societies, the frequent shocks of various disasters have exacerbated the normalization of exceptions, with the consequence of "suspending and inverting the legal and social relations that define the order of rules." The master turned to the service of servants, and the man dressed up and acted like an animal".
In other words, man is deprived of all political rights and reduced to an animalistic existence, that is, "naked life". In the seven disaster films based on real events, "Titanic Cruise Immersion", "Ice Sea Shipwreck", "Sinking of the Titanic", "The Aftermath of the Heavenly Tribulation", "Perfect Storm", "Tsunami Miracle" and "Giant Crocodile Storm", the victims, as a trauma-bearing group, fell into the suspended situation of Giorgio Agamben's so-called emergency in the face of unpredictable and unstoppable disasters, and not only lost various labels and identities in real society, but also suffered physical, Psychological and even life trauma, and even partially retreated to the original state of survival.
In light of this, this section focuses on which individuals or groups of victims in the traumatic narrative become "naked lives" or "immune communities"? What is the process by which they become "naked lives" or "immune communities"? What are the inevitabilities of changing identities between groups of victims?
On the movie screens of different historical stages, there are plots about shipwrecks constantly playing out. From "Titanic Cruise Immersion" in 1953, "Ice Shipwreck" in 1958, "Sinking of the Titanic" in 1996, "Titanic" in 1997, "Perfect Storm" in 2000 to "Taiping Ship" in 2015, films related to shipwrecks account for more than 20% of the total number of disaster movies created based on real events, which shows its influence.
Among them, in the movie "Titanic Cruise Immersion", "Ice Sea Shipwreck" and "Titanic Sinking" based on the sinking of the Titanic, the victims are trapped in the ocean far from land, and in the face of the spreading seawater, they can only rely on the residual wood to drift with the waves and return to the original state of life. The setting of the disaster movie Perfect Storm, based on real events, also relies on shipwrecks, and the protagonists are a group of fishermen with rich sailing experience and knowledge of boating.
But even with professional knowledge and practical experience, they cannot resist the continuous turbulent waves, which are swallowed up by the submersion of the sea along with the boat. In addition to the sea far from land, the mountains also isolate all human civilization and constitute a primitive place. The victims of the disaster movie "Aftermath", based on real events, are trapped under the snow of the Andes Mountains, the "backbone of South America", and need to eat the bodies of their companions to survive.
It can be seen that in the narrative of life trauma, the victim, as a carrier group, is placed under an abnormal extreme environment, detached from the order and state of daily life, and retreated to a pure state of survival. If the victims involved in the above-mentioned films related to shipwrecks and air disasters are concentrated in the group of passengers, then the victims in the disaster movies "Tsunami Miracle" and "Giant Crocodile Storm" based on real events expand to humans, showing the process of the destruction of entire cities and even countries.
In this context, the wider range of victims have to give up their dignity, power, and freedom, and only make the continuation of life their core demands.
However, it is worth noting that not all victims are reduced to naked lives, but are more concentrated in specific groups. The victims in the disaster movies "Titanic Cruise Immersion", "Ice Sea Shipwreck" and "Titanic Sinking" based on real events include both the upper aristocratic class and the lower poor class. In the cruise ship, an overhead space far from the mainland, the lower class still suffers from unfair treatment, being forced by the crew to stay in the lower cabin and forbidden to escape from the deck, and their bodies are eventually swallowed by the constant rush of seawater.
The fishermen in the movie "Perfect Storm", in order to change their own life difficulties, did not hesitate to risk going to dangerous seas, but encountered a storm on the way. In the movie "The Aftermath of the Tribulation", some of the victims become food for the continuation of the survivors' lives, and are represented as intuitive naked life forms.
In the movie "Tsunami Miracle", victims from the West face the risk of language barriers and cultural barriers in the disaster source of the East. Their communication in a catastrophic situation failed, and they retreated to a state of naked life. In general, the naked lives of the victims are mostly concentrated in the lower classes, vulnerable groups, foreign populations, etc., who have been reduced to naked lives due to their wealth, physical and cultural vulnerabilities.
The immune community that this paper focuses on is the group that remains after "identifying those naked lives or unjust people who are sexually excluded, and then isolating them as a threat to the community." On this basis, this section explores what immune communities are shaped in the narrative of life trauma. What characteristic elements do they have?
In the three disaster movies based on the Titanic, "Titanic Cruise Immersion", "Ice Sea Shipwreck" and "Titanic Sinking", the aristocracy is the first to know about the disaster, and their children and women have also obtained the qualification of priority to board lifeboats and become a community of immunity. Compared with the immune community divided by class in shipwrecks, the survivors in the movie "Aftermath" are concentrated in two categories: male athletes and medical students.
Their male physical advantages, as well as their knowledge as doctors, laid the foundation for their eventual desperate survival. The immune community in the movies "Tsunami Miracle" and "Giant Crocodile Storm" is based on the family, which is essentially through the bond between family members to complete the redemption between each other.
It can be seen that the modern social order in the state of exception seems to be broken by natural disasters, but traditional concepts such as morality, nationality, and culture are implicitly buried in people's cognition, discipline people's behavior, and even constitute the bond of the immune community. "The 'community' they pursue means isolation, isolation, symbolizing protective walls and guarded gates."
Specifically in the traumatic narrative of life, survivors of disasters become the primary source of the immune community. This means that the solid form of part of the immune community is achieved at the cost of exploiting or even sacrificing some human lives, such as the abandonment of the poor on the Titanic, the eating of the dead on the plane, and so on.
Although human beings cannot prevent disasters, they can react to disasters in a limited way, and from them they can experience the value of life, producing the experience of the Dionysian spirit, that is, "he gives himself because he knows that what he gives will be rewarded three times as much." "Although the movie "Ice Sea Shipwreck" concentrates on the huge gap between classes, it is also devoid of human brilliance under the disaster.
In the final moments of the shipwreck, the musicians still stood on deck to play music for the victims, conveying the radiance of humanity to the audience and soothing the fear and scars caused by the disaster. The fishermen in the movie "Perfect Storm" go to dangerous waters for their livelihood, where they see beautiful scenery they have never seen before, catch hundreds of pounds of giant fish, and sweep away the sadness caused by the difficulty of livelihood.
Therefore, in the face of a huge storm, they still forged ahead with hope and did not give up until the last moment of their lives. In the movie "Tsunami Miracle", a family of five is swept away by the rolling sea, but they still tirelessly search for each other in the strange situation of language barriers, and finally achieve reunion.
In the narrative of life trauma, although the victims have fallen into the irresistible whirlpool of disaster, they are still full of hope, highlighting the touching spirit of Dionysus, alleviating the traumatic feelings brought to the audience by disasters such as shipwrecks and crashes, and also concealing the traumatic consequences of the victims to a certain extent, that is, constituting hidden scars.
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