Drømme og visuelle medier

Abstract

The article deals with the devices, by which dreams and subjective states are simulated in visual media. Theories which find a strong connection between dream states and visual fiction in general are criticized. The article gives a brief description of cognitive
theories of dreams and points out how dream states are only special cases of subjective states. It further analyzes how dreams and subjective states are simulated in visual fiction, by distortion of normal perception, by highlighting networks of associations, by fragmentation of the possibility of constructing unambiguous time and space, by freining the possibility of re-acting on stimuli and by blocking higher level control connected with phenomena like will and intention. The paper discuss the affective impact of the hindrances made for the cognitive processing of the media dream input. Some of the points are illustrated by an analysis of an dream sequence in Ingmar Bergman's film Wild Strawberries.