The suffragette movement as portrayed in the movie Suffragette (2015)

Abstract

Movies, one of the main media of entertainment, provide an opportunity to bring attention to topics that might otherwise go unnoticed by the public. That, however, presents a certain level of responsibility to anyone who decides to base their narratives on historical topics. There is scholarly debate whether historical films should stay true to facts as much as possible or whether artistic liberties can be taken to convey the larger meaning that the audience can understand better. This is especially important in the case of controversial political events. This Bachelor’s thesis studies the portrayal of the suffragette movement in the 2015 dramatic feature film Suffragette, directed by Sarah Gavron. There are gaps both in translating the suffrage movement to screen and scholarly analysis. In order to analyse the movie, the history of the suffrage movement shall be looked into, with a focus on aspects relevant to or appearing in the movie. The years focused on are 1911-1913, corresponding with the height of militancy. This is also the span covered in the film. The literature review section also introduces some theoretical foundation for analysing history to provide a base for the analysis of the movie. The empirical chapter applies the notions from the literature review to the analysis of the film, to identify how the film makers have chosen to represent the events to their audience.