Doctoral thesis brings new approaches to the understanding of the film musical genre
Sedat Yildirim from the School of Humanities at Tallinn University defended the doctoral thesis in which he investigated the core genre problems in Hollywood film musicals in order to deconstruct traditional film musical generic conventions and to identify a new subgenre.
In his thesis Yildirim brings new approaches to the understanding of the film musical genre. „As a result, I have identified a new sub-genre within the film musical genre that is ‘the postmodern film musical genre’ by stressing the point that film semiotics theories are still credible and helpful in reaching such an outcome,“ explains Yildirim.
Postmodern film musical genre is a new development within Yildirim’s thesis that nobody has talked of before.
Sedat Yildirim adds that there have been many researches aiming to formulate postmodernist film theories; however, musical films were hardly considered while contemplating these theories. „In particular, the shift in the language of film musicals, when proceeding from the modernist period to the postmodernist one, my work contains some valuable and original results.“
Yildirim tried to focus on the contemporary film musicals from different perspectives, partly concentrating on the new notions of different lifestyles and cultures, which helped formulate a subgenre.
It’s closely related to our own cultures and socio-political realities to understand film musical genre and why this kind of art works exist. Sedat Yildirim says that it is important to understand why musicals were popular from 1930s till 1970s and why later there was a sharp decrease in the numbers of musicals produced. „All of this has close connections with what was happening all around the world and how it affected the society and the entertainment business.“
What is happening today with the film musical genre is not so much different from what happened in the past. The genre has evolved and changed and most of the new film musicals we see today are postmodern.
From the School of Humanities at Tallinn University Sedat Yildirim’s dissertation is titled ’Deconstructing the film musical genre through film semiotics and postmodernism". The public defence took place on August 26. Supervisor is Professor Emeritus and Research Professor Mihhail Lotman from Tallinn University and fromhe University of Tartu.
Opponents are Professor Jaan Ross from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and Associate Professor Juan Chattah from the University of Miami.
The doctoral thesis is available in Tallinn University Digital Library ETERA.
