12/3/10
Turner defines Communitas as “a relational quality of full unmediated communication, even communion, between definite and determinate identities”, meaning essentially a feeling of closeness between identifiable people (pg. 250). However, in the film Cold Fever I feel like the main character never experienced communitas with people, mostly because he was reluctant in opening up to others. He had traveling companions throughout different points in the film, but never really connected with any of them. With that said, could it be that he formed a sort of communitas with the landscape? It was the landscape that changed him, that hindered and helped him, and ultimately provided him with the ritual experience he had traveled so far to enact. Despite Turners definition of communitas (one requiring two definable entities), and despite the Japanese salesman’s lack of a human relationship, I believe he still experienced communitas. Although it was with nature, he found a closeness with the spiritual entities that wear the landscape of Iceland as a mask, which is perhaps better than forming a friendship.
No comments:
Post a Comment