Post One

In today’s lecture we looked at the various ways in which Jack the Ripper is used in television. I was really surprised at the range of genres that include Jack the Ripper, in particular the use of Jack the Ripper in the sci-fi genre and even the suggestion of Jack the Ripper being an alien. What struck me most was the way the subject is exploited more on television than it is in film. For example, television is much more versatile when adapting the murders, and as evidence Jack the Ripper appears in episodes of Star Trek.

In our workshop group we discussed our individual roles within the presentation group and have decided to focus on the following areas in the study of Jack the Ripper in films:
Iconography of the Ripper
Ideological assumptions and constructions
Verisimilitude

My particular area of study is to examine the ideological assumptions such as cheery prostitutes, sadistic doctors, arrogant aristocrats and establishment conspiracies and how these are constructed in films featuring Jack the Ripper. We decided that we would limit the amount of actual films clips we show during the presentation as it would be too time consuming to set up the DVD player and find the particular chapter of the DVD to demonstrate our points. Instead we are going to use stills from films as they will be easier to incorporate into our power point presentation and we will be able to carry on talking whilst we show the stills.

Jennifer Bailey