The ternary distinction of sound cinema

Abstract

This thesis addresses the problematic categorization of film music in terms of areductive diegetic/nondiegetic distinction ('the binary') and presents an alternativeanalytical framework. Following the law of parsimony, we reconstruct this originalbinary distinction in order to establish a new tripartite schema that accounts for themany otherwise ambiguous categories of sound that had occupied an unknown orindeterminate region of the binary zones. Drawing on the works of Bordwell,Kassabian, and Neumeyer in particular, the thesis seeks to put an end to thetheoretical indeterminacy that haunts the binary distinction by introducing a newand inclusive ternary schema of sound cinema.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English