Televisual authorship and the affective feminism of HBO’s Sharp Objects adaptation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sharp Objects (2018) has been widely read by journalists and critics as ‘feminist’, and broadly speaking, the miniseries’ feminism has been attributed to its subversion of crime television tropes and tendencies. Historically, both televisual feminisms and authorship endorse individualism, but Sharp Objects departs from this tradition thanks to its high-profile collaborative authorial team of Marti Noxon, Gillian Flynn, and Jean-Marc Vallée. Each of these ‘authors’ brings their own pedigree and creative track record to the series. Flynn is well-known for her novel Gone Girl (2012) and its screen adaption, while Noxon is the writer-creator of Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce (2015–2018), UnReal (2015–2018), and Dietland (2018) and the writer-director of To the Bone (2017), and Vallée directed Dallas Buyers Club (2013), Wild (2014), and the first season of Big Little Lies (2017). This article argues that Sharp Objects’ collaborative authorship offers the opportunity to move away from individualist and singular understandings of televisual feminisms and towards an affective feminism. Moving away from televisual feminism’s historical reliance on individualism, Sharp Objects undertakes an affective feminist exploration of feminine trauma and violence, using unreliable narrator and narrative; intimate claustrophobic setting, tone, and camera work; and visual motifs.