Jabberwocky is a 1971 Czechoslovak animated short film written and directed by surrealism visual artist Jan Švankmajer, inspired from the 1871 poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. Jabberwocky also discusses Jan Švankmajer’s primary concerns—-inner life of people and objects such as supressed impulses related to sexuality, violence, and fear. But this film specifically discusses the degradation of boys in the process of socialization during the growing process of boys via a variety of surrealistic metaphors. The film is deliberatedly designed into 8 parts, which also respectively seggests different processes of a boy’s childhood. However, some of the metaphors come and go during the process, while some other metaphors, corresponding to the root impulses—-sexuality, violence, and fear, are the eternal topic of boys childhood. In my essay, I am going to analyse how the author visualize the dynamic inner impulse evolution via all kinds of metaphors.
There are 3 constant metaphors in this film. The portrait of a middle aged fusty man suggests the fear for the boy. It symbolize the punishments, the patriarchy, the control from father. As said by Jessica (2012), for an inappropriate action will instill in the child a fear of future punishment that will prevent him or her from repeating the action. Through out the whole film, the sharp eyes with a pair of glasses are monitoring the protagonist and the audience with a sense of depression; the black cat, is generally considered as the metaphor for sexuality towards mother, which will bring destruction to the innocent child’s dream; and the dolls refer to the innocent violence of boys. In the film, the innocent-looking dolls are teared like straw man, smashed into grinder like meat, crushed into piece of paper, and they can even kill toy armies. That to some extend, symbolize the instinct of violence inside human beings.
Bibliography
Books:
Asución Lopéz-Varela Azcárate (December 2015). “Transmedial Ekphrasis. From analogic to digital formats”. International Journal of Transmedia Literacy (IJTL). Vol. 1, no. 1. LED Edizioni Universitarie. p. 56. ISBN 9788879167604.
Sera M. On Analogical Thinking Jan Švankmajer’s Jabberwocky[J]. Global Animation Theory, 2018, 29.
Švankmajer J. Surrealism and the Renewal of Language[J]. Avant-garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties, 2011: 188.
Hagemann J. May I Touch Your Meat? Jan Svankmajer, Birth Trauma, and the Gesture toward Touch[J]. Bright Lights Film Journal, 2012, 31.
Sera M. On Analogical Thinking Jan Švankmajer’s Jabberwocky[J]. Global Animation Theory, 2018, 29.
Breton, A. (1969). Manifestoes of Surreali
Hames, P. (1995). ‘Interview with Jan Švankmajer’, in P. Hames (ed.), Dark Alchemy: The Films of Jan Švankmajer, 96–118. Westport: Praeger. Henare, A., M. Holbraad and S. Wastell, eds (2006), Thinking Through
Films:
Alice (Neco z Alenky, 1988), [Film], Dir. Jan Švankmajer, CH, DE, GB: Condor Film, Hessischer Rundfunk, Film Four International.
Story of the Eye (Histoire de l’oeil) (1988) [Film], Georges Bataille
The Garden (Zahrada, 1968), [Film], Dir. Jan Švankmajer, CZ: Krátký film Praha.
Down to the Cellar (Do pivnice, 1982), [Film], Dir. Jan Švankmajer, CZ: Slovenská
filmová tvorba.