TWO WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD: DARREN ARONOFSKY’S BLACK SWAN Cover Image

TWO WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD: DARREN ARONOFSKY’S BLACK SWAN
TWO WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD: DARREN ARONOFSKY’S BLACK SWAN

Author(s): Barbara A. Nelson
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Universitatea Hyperion
Keywords: Wallace Stevens; mirror; Tchaikovsky; Jane Eyre

Summary/Abstract: Whether Nina completely comprehends this seems somewhat dubious. She may recognize the power of the Black Swan, but does she understand its vulnerability as the audience does? For Nina, deception still seems possible. That she does not perfectly play or become the Black Swan in her performance is clearly illuminated by the floodlights that show the discrepancy in the depiction of the dancer’s arms and wings projected by her shadow on the wall. Unlike earlier scenes in which this detachment occur, Nina is oblivious to it. There also exists and irony of the idealistic valence placed by Nina’s on her final self-mutilation.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 09
  • Page Range: 29-36
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: English