Identities in the whirlwind: secrets and fake personalities in Hitchcock's cinema
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Published
25-09-2016
Luis Pablo Francescutti
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5369-2835
Abstract
The intertwining of secret and personal identity features prominently in Alfred Hitchcock's cinema. Its plots are full of people falsely accused, mistaken identities, characters with a hidden past, double agents, blackmailers, impostors, split personalities, etc. In these movies nobody is what it seems, everybody has something to hide. Identity is the sum of all the masks, such seems to be one of the messages: we also are what we conceal. Building on the theoretical frame developed by Georg Simmel, Erving Goffman, Umberto Eco and others scholars, we intend to show from a novel approach that Hitchcok's filmography can be seen as a thorough investigation of the many interactions stimulated by secrecy, both in the public (secret of State) and private level (personal secrets, family secrets). Additionally, our analysis brings into light one of the main leitmotiv underlying those interactions: the malleability of identity, the source of its destabilization. The enactment of its ambiguities and paradoxes provides useful guidance to the sociologist for interpreting phenomena in the making, as fake identities, identity thefts and the relationships between offline and online identities.
How to Cite
Francescutti, L. P. (2016). Identities in the whirlwind: secrets and fake personalities in Hitchcock’s cinema. Papeles De Identidad, 2016(2), papel 162. https://doi.org/10.1387/pceic.16176
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Keywords
secret, identity, Alfred Hitchcock, cinema, Simmel
Section
Research Articles
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