"Another being we have created called 'us'": Point-of-view, Melancholia, and the Joking Unconscious in The Bridges of Madison County

Authors

Walter C. Metz, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Comments

This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in The Velvet Light Trap following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through the University of Texas Press.

Abstract

This essay reads Clint Eastwood's The Bridges of Madison County (1995) as a radical adaptation of Robert James Waller's novel. The piece uses three methods--close aesthetic analysis, Freudian melancholia theory, and Freudian joke theory--to unravel the films' deconstruction of Waller's lachrymose novel.

Recommended Citation

Metz, Walter C. ""Another being we have created called 'us'": Point-of-view, Melancholia, and the Joking Unconscious in The Bridges of Madison County." The Velvet Light Trap 39, No. 1 (Spring 1997): 66-83.