The Shawshank Redemption

This study aims to analyze the nature of “hope” in Stephen King’s “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”. Throughout the novella “hope” acts as a key to open the “redemption” lock. Characters of the story could be divided into two groups: redeemed and unredeemed. Those who really believed in the role of hope finally achieved redemption and salvation while the other characters remained in jail as they were hopeless and pessimistic. Redemption can be considered as an “island”
where peace and quiet can be found. The vehicle to arrive there is nothing but a real strong hope in God, future, and destiny. This paper attempts to focus on the nature of “hope” and its salient link with “redemption” in the novella.

The study analyzes the styles in cinematography adopted by Roger Deakins and attempts to understand if there is a signature style followed throughout his works. Roger Alexander Deakins is an English cinematographer known for his class and finesse in cinematography. Qualitative content analysis on the three selected films-The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner 2049 and Prisoners is employed to decipher the nature of various cinematic tools employed by Deakins. Comparison between the style of cinematographic techniques is also identified through the study. With changing technologies and change in modern aesthetic concepts, there have been different methods by which cinematographers have adapted and hence this research will explore how Roger Deakins have adapted to the contemporary changes. Two of the selected movies; Blade Runner 2049 and Prisoners is directed by Denis Villeneuve and the other i.e., Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont. The key findings from the research suggest that Roger Deakins has no style that he follows throughout his films but is his powerful way of composing each of the frames for the films remain constant. He focuses on the story more than creating a solid style to his area of work. The camera movements being steady and with little or no shake gives his frames a more structured look and feel.

The most transformative moments in life cause us to look both backward (reflection) and inward (introspection).  Likewise, reflective and introspective moments in film often align with important plot points.  Separating music and dialogue from the rhythms of the image, these moments suspend time, creating a distinct temporality for the character(s) and the viewer to observe the past and the present in juxtaposition.  The music of film composer Thomas Newman brings to life some of the most beautiful reflective and introspective moments in cinema.  In this thesis, I approach Newman’s understudied, but highly successful film scores from narrative, musical, and audiovisual perspectives.  Recognizing time as a linear common denominator between the multimedia elements of film, I examine case study scenes in Little Women (1994), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and American Beauty (1999).  Additionally, I present Kofi Agawu’s method of generative analysis as a tool well-suited to Newman’s unique harmonic language.

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) deals with the idea that language is more than a simple means of communication and tries to analyze language as a social behavior to see how social/political power can be conveyed through language. Utilizing CDA as an approach for literary criticism can help researchers to look at literary texts from a new angle which provides opportunities for understanding the hidden layers of the texts regarding social and political aspects. To apply CDA to literary texts, the concept of 'manipulation' should be unpacked. Manipulation, in a social hierarchy, refers to the idea that people who are in a higher power position can easily exert some illegitimate influences through language on those in a lower power position. Consequently, this study aims at providing a practical framework for choosing appropriate literary texts for analyzing from a CDA perspective. To this end, a novel by Stephen King, Rita Heyworth and the Shawshank Redemption (1982) was analyzed. The results of the study reveal that the more manipulation is practiced by characters in the stories, the better CDA can be applied to literary texts. Therefore, manipulation can be considered as a precondition for applying CDA to literary texts. It is also argued that manipulation, discrimination in social hierarchies, and power struggle can be the three 'corners' of a triangular framework for applying CDA to literary texts. The critical discourse study of the novel reveals that both the officials and the prisoners in the novel were deceived by the character Warden Norton as he delivered manipulative lectures and imposed his ideas using his high social power position. It is also argued that how the existing power struggle in the novel leads to social discriminations among people with lower power position.

Prison films depicting the escape of victims of erroneous judgement have gained a notable popularity amongst the move-watching audience. Majority of these films seem to be emphasizing that apart from the wronged protagonist, the rest of the inmates are unfit for a life beyond the prison. Such films, therefore, seem to follow a binarism that designates the hero as ‘self’ and the abhorrent rest as ‘other’, thereby justifying the brutal treatment or the lasting effect of imprisonment on the prisoners in general. This paper will attempt to study the film The Shawshank Redemption’s countering and problematization of the aforementioned discourse or politics of the generic prison films. Through close-reading of relevant and iconic portions of the film this paper will attempt to highlight how this widely popular film presents an ideal prison for serving Rehabilitative Justice and draws attention to the issue of institutionalization of a prisoner, as a response to the generic templates of the Prison films as well as the contemporary prison policies of America . While the paper will have The Shawshank Redemption as its prime focus, references to the typical contents of Prison films will also be made in order to trace the genealogy as well as the uniqueness of this exceptional film of Frank Darabont that does not simply offer a thrilling account of escape of an individual but the redemption of prisoners in general.
Keywords: Prison Films, The Shawshank Redemption, Close-Reading, Rehabilitative Justice, Institutionalization, Departure from Generic Templates, Contemporary Prison Policies of America.

Öz 20. Yüzyılın ikinci yarısında, anlatının bir bilim dalı olarak ortaya çıkmasıyla birlikte alan çalışmaları sistematik bir hal almış ve disiplinler arası bir nitelik kazanmıştır. Klasik ve klasik sonrası olarak iki döneme ayrılan çalışmalar ilk döneminde, anlatılar üzerinden yürüttüğü teorilerde "klasik anlatıbilim" diye adlandırılan "yapısalcı" yaklaşımı benimsemiştir. 60'lı yıl-larda sosyal bilimlerde dile dönüşün bir parçası olarak başlayan bu yapısalcı sistem, özellikle 70'li yılların sonlarından itibaren sadece dilbilimde değil tarih, psikoloji, ilahiyat, hukuk, sos-yoloji, felsefe ve sinema gibi birçok disiplin tarafından da kullanılmıştır. Sinema alanındaki anlatı çalışmalarında ise kurmaca anlatının kavram ve kuramları özellikle etkili olmuş ve bu çalışmalar, film dilinin görsel ve işitsel gramerini bir "sinema anlatısı" olarak inşa etmesine zemin hazırlamıştır. Bu çalışmanın amacı anlatı kavramının köklerine inerek toplumsal de-ğişimlerle şekillenen ana akım anlatı yapılarının oluşum süreçlerini araştırmak ve anlatı ya-pılarının dönemsel özelliklerinin "sinema anlatısına" yansımalarını incelemektir. Bu bağ-lamda anlatının tanımı ve kapsamı ana hatlarıyla çizilecek ve özellikle kurmaca anlatıya dair temel kavramlar tespit edilecektir. Aynı zamanda toplumsal yapı ve kültürdeki gelişmelerin anlatıyı şekillendirme süreçlerine odaklanan çalışma, bu gelişmelerin, anlatılarda kullanılan biçimsel stratejileri nasıl etkilediklerini araştıracaktır. Toplumsal gelişim evrelerinin anlatı formlarını yönlendirme biçimleri dönemler hâlinde kategorize edilecek ve ana akım eğilim-ler, öne çıkan yönetmen ve filmler üzerinden örneklendirilecektir.

(Access full text by following the link under '1 file' next to the number of views.)
Book Review:
Martin, BettyAnn, and Michelann Parr, eds. Writing Mothers: Narrative Acts of Care, Redemption, and Transformation. Bradford, ON: Demeter P, 2020. 258 pages. ISBN 978-1-77258-223-9. Pbk. $34.95.