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This paper offers an analysis of the effect of the supernatural within the genre of the fictional document, how the artist (usually a writer, or filmmaker) reconciles the incorporation of the fantastic into a seemingly realistic medium... more
This paper offers an analysis of the effect of the supernatural within the genre of the fictional document, how the artist (usually a writer, or filmmaker) reconciles the incorporation of the fantastic into a seemingly realistic medium and any resultant narrative disruption therein, and how the genre has
evolved during contemporary technological history to intricately simulate and also provide commentary on the various forms of media imitated.
This paper will argue that the fictional document is a prescient genre – often taking the form of official documents, video diaries, documentaries, or websites (sometimes devoid of context) - and how its shape as an objective 'artefact' differs from its more literary predecessors such as the frame story, the
discovered manuscript, and the epistolary, by foregrounding its authentic form first and then 'presenting' the supernatural through the form's befitting stylistic conventions and limitations.
By focussing in-depth on four specific texts (two works of literature: Robert Aickman's Pages From a Young Girl's Journal (1975) and China Miéville's Reports of Certain Events Around London (2005), and two two motions pictures: REC (2007) and Troll Hunter (2010)) this paper will present how the significance of supernatural phenomena, used metaphorically, can be utilised in multiple ways to alter and sometimes obscure any received narrative, causing the often pedestrian familiarity of the document's form to become uncanny and alienating. Such occurrences provide commentary not only on contemporary media-fixated concerns arising from taking mass information for granted (and any subsequent misunderstanding arising), but also the risks of desire for knowledge and clarification,
especially within the synthetic hyperreality of digital media, and the effect of assumptions and preconceptions in the pursuit of such understanding.
evolved during contemporary technological history to intricately simulate and also provide commentary on the various forms of media imitated.
This paper will argue that the fictional document is a prescient genre – often taking the form of official documents, video diaries, documentaries, or websites (sometimes devoid of context) - and how its shape as an objective 'artefact' differs from its more literary predecessors such as the frame story, the
discovered manuscript, and the epistolary, by foregrounding its authentic form first and then 'presenting' the supernatural through the form's befitting stylistic conventions and limitations.
By focussing in-depth on four specific texts (two works of literature: Robert Aickman's Pages From a Young Girl's Journal (1975) and China Miéville's Reports of Certain Events Around London (2005), and two two motions pictures: REC (2007) and Troll Hunter (2010)) this paper will present how the significance of supernatural phenomena, used metaphorically, can be utilised in multiple ways to alter and sometimes obscure any received narrative, causing the often pedestrian familiarity of the document's form to become uncanny and alienating. Such occurrences provide commentary not only on contemporary media-fixated concerns arising from taking mass information for granted (and any subsequent misunderstanding arising), but also the risks of desire for knowledge and clarification,
especially within the synthetic hyperreality of digital media, and the effect of assumptions and preconceptions in the pursuit of such understanding.
