The Cinematic Space in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours: A Heterotopian Perspective

The Cinematic Space in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours: A Heterotopian Perspective

Wenqing Zhao1 and I. Murat Öner2

1MA Student, International Burch University
2Assistant Professor, International Burch University

The film The Hours directed by Stephen Daldry is based on an experimental novel in which three women from detached places and eras are interlinked by the book Mrs Dalloway. Given that, its sense of simultaneity and spatial heterogeneity is quite obvious. Adopting the notion of Heterotopia proposed by Michel Foucault, the current paper analyzes the juxtaposed construction of space and time in The Hours. It examines how the editing, recurring imagery and coherent motives in The Hours function in order to construct heterotopian space and to shed light upon central themes such as alienation, sexual identity and death. Through these meticulous filmmaking techniques, the film not only transfers the collapse and confluence of time and space from text to the screen, but also retouches its postmodernist aesthetics and social reflectivity, offering a thought-provoking viewing experience for the audience

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