Irony in Guy Maddin

Abstract
The purpose of this research was to analyze the signifying keys involved in the
configuration of irony in Guy Maddin’s films discourse under a semiotic
approach. These elements were the use of symbols, semisymbols and icons
(Greimas & Courtés, 1990). Besides this, we have the textual processes of
deconstruction such as paradox and absurd and of reconstruction such as
parody, grotesque, allegory and humor, all of these conform his filmic discourse
(Bravo, 1996). The corpus was conformed by the film The Saddest Music in the
World (2003). The Greimas’ Structural Semantics (1976) was used to analyze
the process developed in Maddin’s filmography. This study let us know about
the construction of irony based on similarities and differences in the visual-
sonorous effects of this canadian filmmaker to achieve significance and critical
reflection in postmodern times (Hutcheon, 1988).
Key words: Maddin, irony, films, semiotics, textual processes.

Configuration of Irony in Guy Maddin’s Films

The ironic vision comes from the same roots of modern culture. It breaks

the boundaries of every day routine based on rigid presuppositions of reality

and truth that guide human beings’ way of thinking. This ironic vision states

unexpected elements characterized by uncertainty, incongruence and

senseless.

The artistic expression has always kept, a complex relation of loyalty and

disloyalty with reality: or it is subordinated to reality to become its most

prestigious propagandist, or it snaps the ropes to show its shining capacities of

creating own worlds. Modernism, taking into to account these two trends:

deconstruction (differences) and reconstruction (identity), has developed

diverse textual processes of irony: a) processes of difference that refute

reality, and open, at the same time, the possibility of impossible worlds, like the

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paradox and the absurd, and b) processes of identity that in a paradoxical

confirmation of real things, create expressive possibilities and reconstructions of

sense, in an atmosphere of resistance like parody and grotesque, allegory and

humor. (Bravo, 1996).

In this way, Guy Maddin, a Canadian filmmaker, is shown as a

representative of modernism and I would say, he goes beyond that, Maddin

moves towards the postmodern era concerning to art. According to Huctheon

(1989) “postmodernism is used to designate art forms which are fundamentally

self-reflexive-art that is self-consciously art (…) it is openly aware of the fact that

it is written and read as part of a particular culture, with as much to do with the

literary past as with the social present” (63)

What postmodernism also invariably seems to signal is irony. Irony in two

main senses: in a more formal sense, that is, as ironic intertextuality, or more

simply, parody; and in a more ideological sense, in which the postmodern

speaks using and abusing, inscribing and subverting at the sane time the

cultural dominants within which it unavoidably works.

Irony can definitely be found in all Maddin’s films. To show the way irony is

shaped on his works, one of his films will be analyzed: The Saddest Music in

the World (2003).This setting of this movie was the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba,

Canada, city well known as the World Capital of Sadness. All the facts take

place in I933 when Great Depression was still occurring (1929-1939). So the

atmosphere was full of restrictions, especially in relation to alcohol, lack of jobs,

lots of immigrants and poverty. In relation to the plot outline, the baroness of

beer, lady Port-Huntly announces a promotional international contest to find the

saddest music in the world giving as a prize $25,000 thousand to the winner.

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Two brothers (Chester Kent and Roderick) and their father (Fyodor) participate

in the contest as well as lots of people from all over the world.

Analysis

Deconstrucction (differences)

Absurd: It is the assumption of the world incongruence, contrary to all

reason or common sense. According to Aristotele (1970) absurd can be

achieved in two possible ways: as a breaking of the presupposition of casualty

or as a suppression of any purpose. Any unusual cause or effect that breaks a

presupposition in a “normal” situation is considered as and absurd fact. This

breaking is what also called a “rupture of isotopy” conceiving the term isotopy

as “the permanence of contextual features, whose variations, instead of

destroying the unity of the text, serve to confirm it “(Greimas, 1970:96). Let’s

take a look at some examples:

1. A heart in a small bottle Roderick, wellknown as Gavrilo,The Great, is

one of the main characters who pretends to be a Serb, is considered as
the saddest violoncellist of the world.This is because his little son’s death
and his wife’s abandon. As soon as his son dies, Roderick decides to
take his son’s heart and to keep it in a small bottle preserved in his
tears liquid. So there is a rupture of isotopy presented in the fact of what
Roderick did with his son’s heart instead of doing what was socially
expected: to bury his son and to mourn for him. To start with the
semiotic analysis, I took the nuclear semes (Oxford Advance Learner’s
Dictionary, 1989) and classemes contained in the main lexemes of the
chosen statements. Nuclear semes are the smallest signifying units that
let us identify a lexeme from another one (Greimas, 1970), while the
classemes would correspond to the contextual semes emerged from the
cultural experience of any subject. (Pottier in Blanco & Bueno, 1980).
“Death”:

Semes: /ending/+/failure/

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 Classemes: /grave/+ /mourning/+/resignation/+/oblivion/

“Preserve”

Semes: /maintaining/+/perfect/+/unchanged/

Classemes: /belonging/+/caring/+/affection/

“Life”

Semes: /being/+/alive/+/living/

Classemes: /existence/+ /caring/+/loving/+/caring/

“Tears”

Semes: /drop/+ /salty/+ /water/+ /grief/

Classemes: /sadness/+ /farewell/+/love/

In this case we have the opposite relation death vs life so the

only way of maintaining his son perfect, unchanged on even alive was

keeping his heart and suffering in the bottle full of his tears. If Roderick

would have put his son into a grave, he would have ended with his

suffering through oblivion.

2. The love of the father & son for the same woman : Fyodor (the father)

and Chester Kent (the son) both fell in love with Lady Port-Huntley, the

baroness who calls for the competition. So if we take at look at the

semes and classemes of the lexemes father vs son we will find an

opposition relation of values: loyalty Vs disloyalty, respect Vs disrespect

that is configured in the love for the same woman.

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 “Father”:

Semes: /male/+/parent/+/originator/

Classemes: /authority/+/obedience/+/loyalty/

« Son »

Semes: /male/+ /child/+ /descendant/

Classemes : /respect/+/loyalty/+/steem for/

We also face a similar situation between brothers in this film: Chester and

Roderick and Narcissa.

3. Winnipeg, Capital of Sorrows: Let’s analyze the following extract:

Lady Port Huntley: Listen to the sounds of Winnipeg. We are proud that

Winnipeg has been chosen for 5 years by the London Times as the World

Capital of Sorrows.

Proud

Semes: /feeling/+ /satisfaction/+ /doing well/

Classemes: /pleasure/+ /powerful/+ /famous/

Sorrow

Semes: /feeling/+ /sadness/+ /loss/+ /disappointment/+ /regret/

Classemes: /poverty/+ /unemployment/+ /hunger/

If we analyze the lexemes there are not achievements to be proud of.

Winnipeg is coming through The Great Depression. There’s poverty,

unemployment, hunger, prohibitions, lots of immigrants. So there is an

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opposition relation of pride vs sorrow instead of pride vs joy (a rupture of

isotopy).

A paradox is an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to

a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition. Typically, either the

statements in question do not really imply the contradiction, the puzzling result

is not really a contradiction, or the premises themselves are not all really true or

cannot all be true together.

1. The competition: the purpose of the competition was to choose the

saddest music in the World and the fact that the contest is directly
concerning to beers. To start with, I took the nuclear semes and
classemes contained in the main lexemes to be analyze.
“Beer”:
semes: /drink/+/alcohol/+/barley/+/fragrant/
classemes: /celebration/+/party/+/happiness/
“sad”
semes: /melancholic/+/sorrow/+/grief/
classemes: /tears/+/grief/+/mourning/+/alcohol/ +/depression/
In this way, it is found:
The saddest music vs beers
/sorrow/ vs /happiness/
More precisely, this relation /sorrow/ vs /happiness/ concerns contrary

opposition. According to Greimas’ semiotics (Greimas & Courtés, 1979), the

meaning construction requires grasping similarities and differences at the same

time.

2. Aesthetic: This film shot in black and white (b/w), excepting for a few

scenes where a monochrome, different from black and white, is

briefly shown. This filmmaker uses the technique of (b/w) of very early

movies and only optical effects in spite of the use of innovating and

colorful digital technologies to the visual effects of his works.

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 Color vs black & white

Digital effects vs Optical effects

Modern movies vs Old movies/

(color, digital effects, vs (black & white, optical effects, portable

sophisticated digital cameras) camera: MetroC, 2007)

So it is clearly observed that Maddin uses old techniques to make his

movies in his own way but they are full of creative and optical effects as well as,

reflective content that lay on irony and postmodernism within a Canadian

culture.

The technique of postmodernism is to open up new readings by taking

“old” elements, particularly elements associated with a dominant ideology, and

situating them in a new, destabilizing context (Hutcheon, 1988).

Reconstruction (identity)

Parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically

comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the

work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. As literary

theorist Hutcheon (2000) puts it, "parody...is imitation with a critical difference,

not always at the expense of the parodied text" (7). Another critic, Dentith

(2000), defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively

polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice" (9). In this

way cultural, social, and political movements can frequently be parodied.

The parodic text is a deconstructive writing: it denies and rejects the

values of a model and, at the same time, it affirms and, even, homages that

model.

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1. The Canadian identity: Maddin is dealing with his country’s lack of

an explicit national identity. Through Chester and Roderick, and

through this worldwide contest, Canada attempts to define itself

strictly in the terms of other nations. “However, as the film’s ethnic

representations remain strictly in the realm of stereotypes, Maddin is

concerned primarily with the world’s perception of Canada, which is

nearly non-existent (Hart, 2004).

Fragment A (Chester’s Identity)

Narcissa: Well, he’s an American. (She refers to Chester)

Fyodor: You’re mistaken. He may have the sting of an American on him

but I assure he’s a Canadian 100%.

Narcissa: You lied to me?

Chester: No. It’s like I said, I’m a producer from New York, a real lying

Yankee little boy.

Fyodor: and you are not son of mine.

Fragment B (Roderick’s Identity)

Roderick: As for me, I will draw on the sadness of Serbia, a little country

that started the Great War. Gavrilo the Great will avenge for those 9

million deaths.

Fyodor: You are a Canadian born and raised.

Roderick: Until I walked down the streets of Belgrade for the first time, I

never felt at home anywhere. I finally knew where I was and where my

heart wart was.

2. The Identity of Americans: During the competition, Chester, the

“authentic” American guy prowls the street, looking for poor foreign

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 musicians he can recruit for nothing more than the promise for a ticket

home. Meanwhile, The Statue of Liberty is one of the most

recognizable symbols of the United States and, more generally,

represents liberty and escape from oppression. The Statue of Liberty

was, from 1886 until the jet age, often one of the first glimpses of the

United States for millions of immigrants after ocean voyages from

Europe. The interior of the pedestal contains a bronze plaque

inscribed with the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus in

1883. The essence of this sonnet can be seen in here: “…

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" (Sutherland, 2003:78).

This symbol appears in the contest finale referring to the American Team

and all the immigrants who were bribed by Kent ant the one who

pretends to be the Statue of Liberty is the baroness who is ready to wring

Money from everybody (American families and the rest of immigrants).

In this case, the lamp of the Statue of Liberty to bring release is related to

the beer of Lady port-Huntly to bring poverty.

Los colores: azul, blanco y rojo sobre el mismo fondo de la película

en blanco y negro en relación al símbolo de la bandera

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 Norteamericana cuando participa el grupo de ese país en la

competencia justamente en la final.

3. The funeral of a banker where you can only see the suffered widow

crying. The rest of people are just faking: The old ladies covering their

faces with a handkerchief pretending to be crying and the others are

just making faces as Chester said in a scene: “I don’t really believe in

all this sadness… somehow people start making a show”

Allegory is sustained longer and more fully in its details than a metaphor, and

appeals to imagination, while an analogy appeals to reason or logic. It can also

be defined as fiction that represents an object, in a way of recalling an idea of

another object. Modern allegory turns into the signs of balance among the

negative forces of paradox, absurd, parody and grotesque.

Allegorical Nationalism: It is observed through symbols, semisymbols and

icons.

1. The Maple Leaf as a symbol of Canada in a scene in black and white

where you can see Fyodor and two trees in a reddish image in allegory

of the Canadian flag. There is another scene during the contest in which

Fyodor says: “I’m here to represent Canada. This is Canada speaking:

The Red Maple Leaf”, while he’s singing this song. So the symbols in

here belong to the visual and sonorous plans of expression.

2. The symbol of the Royal Union Flag, called the Union Flag, or,

commonly, the Union Jack was covering Fyodor’s coffin as part of his

military condition to be honored. The Union Jack has a long history

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 usage in Canada dating back to the British settlement in Nova Scotia

after 1621. Although the Red Ensign was widely used in Canada from the

time of Confederation until the national flag was adopted in 1965, The

Union Jack was the affirmed national symbol from 1904 and was the flag

under which Canadian troops fought during the First World War. The

Union Jack maintains its presence in Canada through its incorporation in

the provincial flags of Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. (State

Ceremonial and Canadian Symbols)

The Union Flag

3. On the other hand, there is a scene where it’s raining and Roderick is holding

the bottle with his son’s heart. It is training and the camera takes a close up of a

raindrop. Within the drop you can see Roderick with his wife and son. In this

way, the raindrop becomes a tear symbol of grief. According to the Diccionario

de la Real Academia Española (DRAE, 2007) “tear” means pain, adversities,

grief, suffering.

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4. Letter “M” on the hockey uniforms players is related to Manitoba, Canadá,

acting as an icon. Greimas & Courtés (1990) defines this term as an equivalent

of a referential illusion. It is the result of a group of procedures to make sense

based on culture and a certain semiotic ideology.

5. We can also find the use of semisymbols in the text. : el azul y su relación

con el pasado. Por lo tanto, dentro del recorrido de texto (película) el color azul

es dotado de un vertimiento semántico, capaz de brindarle al espectador la

evocación de imágenes pasadas, recuerdos.

4. El arte de las diferentes nacionalidades Al concentrarse diferentes

grupos musicales de inmigrantes hay una alegoría inmediata de esas

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 otras culturas. En la escena aparecen todos con sus indumentarias

ye instrumentos típicos: un chino, unos mexicanos vestidos de

mariachi y cantando en español, un grupo de africanos tocando a la

vez que muestran un ritual fúnebre donde se cortan las caras,

escoceses con sus gaitas y sus faldas de tartán.

El símbolo de sonoro de la campana en un ring de boxeo, cada vez que

los competidores van a cantar y el visual antes de cada competencia aparece

en pantalla el nombre de los dos paises a competir acompañado de Vs que

significa “against”.

Grotesque

La modernidad va a asumir el cuerpo como lenguaje y, al hacerlo,

explora las posibilidades expresivas de lo abyecto, la fuerza de su negatividad;

e introduce, en la esfera de lo estético, la expresión de lo feo. (p.123)

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 La corporeidad va a entrar en la escena para refutar las presuposiciones

y valores de lo real, y para rechazar la presuposición de belleza, como

fundamento de la estética. En el primer sentido se ha transgredido, tal como lo

ha señalado Kristeva (1980) una interdicción social; en el segundo, como

indicáramos, introduce el valor de la fealdad (que, contradictoriamente, hace

muchas veces brotar la belleza de su seno), como una de las intencionalidades

del arte. (p. 124)

De allí se deriva, para la modernidad, la convicción de una expresión

estética de lo feo, de lo grotesco, de la materialidad de lo corporal, que se

presenta, por la conciencia de lo grotesco, en “otro yo mismo”, en la extrema

dualidad del ser que ve el cuerpo a la vez como “yo mismo” y como “otro”.

Quizás podría escribirse una historia de Occidente que sea a la vez la historia

del horror y la fascinación por el cuerpo. El cuerpo como lugar del pecado y la

corrupción, de la mancha y de la muerte, como lugar del pecado y la

corrupción, de la mancha y de la muerte, como lo innombrable, que debe ser

flagelado y, finalmente, olvidado, como un peso del que es necesario

desprenderse. (p. 125)

1. La amputación de las piernas de la Baronesa La baronesa y Kent

van de paseo en el carro, mientras Kent maneja, ella le hace sexo oral

y en la emoción esté pierde el control del carro y chocan. L baronesa

se destroza una pierna y la otra le queda buena pero en ese momento

llega Fyodor, doctor y padre de Kent, totalmente ebrio y en su intento

de ayudar a su amada le corta la pierna buena y queda sin piernas.

2. Teddy, the gigolo: Teddy is an example of body corruption in the Great

Depression Era.

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 Lady Port-Huntley: It’s a bad time for me. I’m devoured with guilt about the

obscene amount of money I make. At this time there are so many people

with nothing. I’m heartsick about poor Teddy over here, with a wonderful

wife and two beautiful children and has to make me “sing in the sea sun”

whenever I ask to keep his job.

Humor

Stern (1975: 75) defines humor is produced by a degradation of values

that can be rebuilt at any time. To be fun, a man or thing must be related to a

higher value. The higher value let a lower value turns into a degraded value.

“Degrading and not lack of values”.(131)

This degradation of the universe values makes an atmosphere of

superiority of “I” against the universe. Humor reveals in a way of a critical way of

amusement.

Irony is related to humor not to comedy. In this sense, comedy turns into

an amusing spectacle, whereas humor critics what is degraded and

incongruent. To understand a humorous statement, a person must be reflective

and capable of discovering incongruence. This incongruence works with the

“rupture of isotopy” or breaking of presuppositions (Plessner, 1941:191),

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 A comic can make people laugh but without any reflextive whereas a

humorist works based on incongruent statements making people critical trying

to be more reflective and less comic.

It is the humorist where the ironic conscience lives, the perception of the

World and the human being, and intuition of belonging to different plans of

existence.

1. Narcisa:

Fyodor: Are you an American?

Narcissa: No, I’m not an American. I’m a nynphomaniac.

Fyodor: If you’re not an American, you can be whatever you like.

“American”

Semes: /native/+ /citizen/+ /USA/+ /English/

Classemes: /

“Nymphomaniac”

Semes: /excessive/+ /uncontrollable/+ /sexual/+ /desire/+ /women/

Caso de roderick y Narcisa y chester

2. The widow: Alter the banker’s funeral; Chester is interested in having

the sobbing widow for singing in the contest. He’s sure of the success

she will give him. Let’s take a look:

Chester: I was very moved by your daughter’s performance. I we could

prepare a musical show to him to let people know about the banker’s life

and great spirit.

Widow’s mom: Is that for the radio contest?

Chester: no. Maybe…

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Widow’s mom: I’ll let my daughter to sing for you but it won’t come cheap

and you have to pay in advance.

Chester: I’ll be willing to pay as high as $1.75

Widow’s mom: She’s worth more that that.

3. The commentators: A pair of unctuous radio commentators keeps

the world glued to their radios waiting to discover who will win the

grand prize.

Female commentator: Isn’t it rather odd that Lady Port-Huntley is actually

in one of these numbers when she’s also the judge?

Male commentator: I think she looks spectacular.

“Judge”

Semes: /decision/+ /winner/+ /competition/

Classemes: /impartial/+ /fair/+ /nonpartisan/

“dancing”

Semes

Classemes

“looks”

Semes

Classemes

“fantastic”

Semes

classemes

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Conclusiones

al análisis semántico greimasiano, pudimos acceder con la

organización del discurso según las clases semánticas, de un lado, en
semas, lexemas, clasemas y sememas, y de otro, por el
establecimiento de la red de relaciones isotópicas.

References

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Universidad de Lima.

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Bravo, D. (1996). Figuraciones del Poder y la Ironía. Caracas: Monte Ávila
Editores Latinoamericana, C. A.
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DRAE. (1970). Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. Madrid: Espasa.
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Greimás, A. J. & Courtés, J. (1990). Semiótica. Diccionario Razonado de la
Teoría del Lenguaje. Madrid: Gredos.
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Kristeva, J. (1988). Poderes de la perversión. México: Siglo XXI.
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http://www.metrocinema.org/pubs/maddin [consulta: 2007, Diciembre 15].
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State Ceremonial and Canadian Symbols. Department of Canadian Heritage.
(s.f.). [Página Web en línea]. Disponible http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-
ccsp/sc-cs/union_e.cfm [Consulta:2007, Diciembre 10].
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