This paper examines violence and silence in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, which is based on Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup. McQueen’s film presents slavery as the background for violence and silence. Violence and silence are the key words that signify 12 Years as a legitimate portrayal of slavery. Northup is a freeborn black man, but he is tricked by two white men and sold to a slave trader. He suffers from unrelenting violence for insisting upon his free status and beating a white overseer, Tibeats. Patsey, Edwin Epps’s female slave suffers from ruthless violence. As the object of Epps’s lust, she is brutally beaten for seeking soap to clean herself. She is also victim to the jealous rages of Mistress Epps who lashes out at her without direct reason. Northup is indifferent to the plight of the women and is silent although he sees Patsey beaten. He learns the survival rule of silence after witnessing slavery’s oppression and ruthless beatings. His silence continues until freedom is opportune. Patsey is forced to accept her slave status as a female slave under the institution of slavery. In spite of a severe whipping, Patsey is usually silenced. McQueen repeatedly dramatizes and emphasizes violence and silence through the depravity of slavery and expands upon the violence to present the realities about slavery to viewers of his film, 12 Years a Slave.
한국중앙영어영문학회 [The Jungang English Language And Literature Association Of Korea]
설립연도
1968
분야
인문학>영어와문학
소개
본 학회는 영미어문학의 학술연구와 이에 부합하는 아래의 사업을 기획 수행하며,
또한 회원 상호간의 친목을 도모함을 목적으로 한다.
1. 학회지 발간
2. 연구 발표회, 강연회, 공동연구
3. 영미어문학 관련 도서출판
4. 영미어문학 관계 도서 및 자료의 모집 및 비치
5. 기타 본회의 목적 달성에 필요한 사업
간행물
간행물명
영어영문학연구 [The Jungang Journal of English Language and Literature]