Expressionism in The Black Swan Essay

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell is a story of a teenager named Jason who writes poetry, and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke is the story of an experienced poet who gives advice to a young poet looking for some advice. In both stories, ideas of beauty are introduced and developed, and while the idea of “beauty stems from within” are the same, their developments are very different. While some differences are small, these differences create a different mood in the overall presentation of the central themes. These changes in development style showcase each author's literary prowess, but even with all these changes in style and mood, the central idea of beauty still remains the same in each story.

“Black Swan Green” specifically the chapter “Solarium” by David Mitchell and “Letters to a Young Poet” specifically “Letter One” by Rainer Maria Rilke share a central idea in common that they develop throughout their texts. Both explore the idea of beauty and how it is shown through poetry. “Black Swan Green” tells the story of Jason, an aspiring teenage poet. “Letters to a Young Poet” is the interchange of letters between a novice poet seeking advice and criticism from Rainer Rilke. Both stories explore the process of showing beauty through poetry and developing the concept of beauty itself.

John Marsden’s and Shaun Tan’s epic picture book, “The Rabbits”, is an allegorical fable about colonisation, told from the perspective of the natives. An unseen narrator describes the coming of ‘rabbits’ in the most minimal detail, an encounter that is at first friendly and curious, but later darkens as it becomes apparent that the visitors are actually invaders. My chosen image (above), embodies the overall style of the book which is deliberately sparse and strange. Both text and image conveys an overall sense of bewilderment and anxiety as native numbat-like creatures witness the environmental devastation under the wheels of a strange new culture, represented by the rabbits.

Aestheticism was a popular dogma in the late 1800s that centered on the belief that art should exist for beauty alone. This doctrine is defined as an “exaggerated devotion to art, music, or poetry, with indifference to practical matters” and “the acceptance of artistic beauty and taste as a fundamental standard, ethical and other standards being secondary” (“Aestheticism,” def. 1 and 2). In Oscar Wilde’s sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, aestheticism is a fashionable belief accepted by society at the time. Oscar Wilde uses the moral deterioration and ultimate destruction of Dorian Gray in The Picture of Dorian Gray to emphasize the negative effects of society’s preoccupation with aesthetics and offer a moral for the reader.

Night Swan is initially an outcast because she is a “half breed” but her frivolous behavior pushes her even further as a disgrace to women. Night Swan discusses the real reason her and Tayo are outcasts, “they are afraid, Tayo. They feel something happening, they can see something happening around them, and it scares them. Indians or Mexicans or whites—most people are afraid of change.” (Silko 92). Night Swan teaches Tayo about miscegenation and how the people do not physically fear them, but rather fear the concept of change occurring around them. Night Swan

The website archdaily provides information on the architecture of the Munson- Williams-Proctor Art Institute. In Denim Pascucci’s article AD Classics: Munson- Williams- Proctor Arts Institute / Philip Johnson it is stated that the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute was designed by architect Philip Johnson. This was Philip Johnson’s first ever museum. In the late 1950’s he would design two other free-standing museums. The other two are the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art (now American Art), and the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery (now Museum of Art) at the University of Nebraska. The Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum of Art, was completed in 1960. The building has a windowless perfect-square design with gallery rooms situated around a central

In this scene, Nina is the main focus. With her mother Erica in the background throughout, no matter if you can see her or not. Her voice and non- diegetic music is added to show how her mother embodies Nina. With the use of sound as Erica pushes on the locked door, there is light music that would put you to sleep. This calms the audience to portray that Erica is a caring, loving mother. When Nina’s mother becomes more invasive towards Nina the musical background intensifies. This also intensifies when Nina traps herself. The director uses non- diegetic music to identify when Nina is trapped physically and more importantly mentally. She confines herself away from her mother and mental illness. Nina’s reaction to her mother is the usual response to help and personal mental health “go away.” This demonstrates Darren Aronofsky 's way he wanted to depict women to mental health and relationships. The audience is able to grasp on mental health that is not being supported. Which consequently portray how relationships need to fight for help with individuals that have mental health issues. Darren Aronofsky represent women in a way that women in society react to their mental health and chose not to get help. He shows how people outside react to the characters mental health from an inside perspective. From the non-diegetic music, we are able to communicate the levels of mental health and how two

In the beginning of the film, Nina was depicted as an average, normal person living in New York that yet lacked the freedom to express herself as a sexually free, young woman due to her mother’s controlling behavior. When she wins the coveted Swan Queen role, the feeling of immense pressure that comes with the role causes Nina to lose her tenuous grip on reality and descend into a living nightmare. For example, she experiences symptoms such as interpreting normal behavior from Lily as an attack because of Nina’s jealousy toward Lily’s effortless embodiment of the Black Swan (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, & Nock, 2014). Nina’s attention to negative behavior to Lily is a result of her own imagination – she starts conceiving events that did not happen such as a lesbian fling with Lily and her constant attempts to sabotage Nina’s ability to perform as the Swan Queen. In addition, she suffers through hallucinatory episodes that involve bodily horror, such as her skin tearing off her body and the appearance of an evil twin, every time she reaches a step closer to her full transformation of the Swan Queen.

Ever since their invention many centuries ago, clothes have been used as a way of communicating. The message communicated relies on a number of factors including the social background of both the communicator and the receiver, and the context in which the message is communicated. Although at times the exact message or symbolism one is trying to portray may not be clear, it is evident that clothing has long been embraced as one of the best ways to project one’s desired personal image to those around them.

The movements of German Expressionism and Japanese pre-war cinema produced trends greatly influenced by its historical context. These contexts contributed to shaping their own stylistic styles captured throughout the theme, mise-en-scene, and cultural ideologies. Although these two movements occurred in fairly similar time periods, they both occurred in different parts of the world which had a fundamental role in generating key contrasts between these movements. Both occurring in pre-war periods, a striking similarity existed between the two; they both displayed the economic instabilities. Both subtly exhibited the internal anxieties that the individuals faced in the differing societies. German Expressionism had the stylistic forms that in turn captured distorted images or grotesque style to convey an abstract sense of reality throughout 1920’s. On the other hand, the Japanese pre-war cinema expressed the humanistic family by displaying their everyday struggles of the lower middle class known as the “common people” during the 1930’s. Although these movements were individually unique throughout their distinct stylistic devices and ideologies, they essentially came together during this time period to help transform the art of national cinema.

The main character in the film Black Swan, twenty-eight year old female Nina Sayers, displays signs of numerous disorders through her abnormal behavior. Nina’s life is consumed by her occupation: professional ballerina/dancer. Nina resides with her mother and rarely socializes with others. She has difficulty concentrating, is restless, irritable, suffers from muscle tension, and sleep disturbances from nightmares. Nina also feels very uncomfortable in social and intimate situations. She appears to be unable to successfully interact with those around her. The interaction that Nina has with her fellow dancers appears to be strained and superficial. Nina exhibits behavior that indicates she views all other dancers as competition instead of

felt that the frame of mind of the artist when he creates a work of

Black Swan and Whiplash both feature intense practice sequences that build upon the narrative of obsessing over a craft. This intense and obsessive practice leads up to the conclusion of the films; where each character gives their absolute best performance. Nina’s final transformation into an impure and sinful character is completed when she grows black wings and slams her mother’s hand in her door. During the performance, Nina gets into an altercation with herself and stabs herself in the pure White Swan costume. Andrew transforms into “one of the greats” as he is embarrassed by Fletcher on stage. They both have their careers riding on their performances. They both fail to begin with; Andrew not knowing the chart the rest of the band is playing and Nina falling during act I of Swan Lake. Yet their greatness is proven when they give the final goodbye to their parental figures and former youth. Andrew runs off stage, hugs his dad and his former reality, as he knows his life will never be what it once was. Nina exchanges eye contact with her crying mother as she looks proudly onto her daughter dancing like she never could.

Throughout the movie, Nina was seen suffers from numerous of symptoms which seems abnormal. While her anxiety is clearly expressed, obsessive compulsive disorder may be the prominent disorder in which Nina was experiencing. First of all, she continuously receives criticism that she was trying to be “perfect” from her instructor (Thomas) during the practices. As we know, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD associates psychological distress

In the context of John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” “The Wild Swans at Coole” by William Butler Yeats raises compelling dialogue with Keats’ piece, which suggests that Yeats, to some degree, draws inspiration from John Keats, in that his pose concerning the nightingale becomes a basis and “touchstone” for “The Wild Swans at Coole.” Aside from commonalities concerning avians, both poems share elements of Romanticism, melancholy, feelings of weariness, and other key ideas, images, and plots as “Ode to a Nightingale” and thus, “The Wild Swans at Coole” strengthens Keats’ initial ideas in a harmonic and resonant fashion using its own unique methods. As a response to Keatsian Romanticism, Yeats revises the ideas surrounding transcendence of