How (Some) Films do Social Theory

Event details

What if texts were not the only way to theorise? What if films also did something like social theory, but in a different way?

As an extended example to consider, Professor Kate Nash will present a close reading of Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank (2009). The film has been celebrated as a new form of poetic social realism, especially for the way in which it sets up the experience of embodiment for viewers. Kate suggests that it also enables us to explore the concept of patriarchy in a complex and subtle way.

The film shows the ambivalent appeal of male power, its temptations to Mia, the young woman we follow closely into her home and around her estate. Exploring how Fish Tank contributes to our understanding of power and violence, perhaps we can see some films as contributing to social theory in valuable and unexpected ways.

Note: If you attend online, please contact Professor Anna Strhan at anna.strhan@york.ac.uk to add you to the calendar invite where you can find the Join Zoom link. 

About the speaker

Professor Kate Nash

Kate Nash is Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology, LSE. Previously Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, she has also been Visiting Professor at Sciences Po, Paris, the New School for Social Research, New York, Stockholm University and the UN University for Peace, San José, Costa Rica.

She is a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University, and a member of the editorial board of Cultural Sociology. She has published on film and human rights in Public Culture and Human Rights Quarterly. Her current research project is ‘Social Theory through Film’.