The Evolution of Text As Power in the Films of Peter Greenaway
Tara Smith
McNair Research, Fall 2003
There is no doubt that director Peter Greenaway has some interest in and/or awareness of the power and uses of text. Anyone viewing his films, “The Draughtsman’s Contract,” “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover,” “Prospero’s Books,” and “The Pillow Book,” would easily recognize the centrality of text to both the plots and major characters of each film. The Evolution of Text as Power in the Films of Peter Greenaway explores the importance of text, to the plot and characters, in the four Greenaway films mentioned above. The exploration goes beyond reiterating events and central themes and suggests that what take place between Greenaway’s 1982 film, “The Draughtsman’s Contract,” and 1995’s, “The Pillow Book,” is an evolution of, perhaps in Greenaway’s own thinking, how the power of text emerges subtly and develops into a relationship that, if one is not careful, can condone and perpetuate perversion of its power.