The portrayal of bullying in The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)

Ferine Febriana

Abstract


Bullying is a pattern of negative behavior, not an occasional incident, which still occurs frequently in society. In most cases, bullying happens to children at school. As the issue has received much public attention, bullying is commonly featured in numerous literary works, one of which is in the children's film by Joe Cornish, The Kid Who Would Be King (2019). Through analysis under the framework of film theory by Bordwell and Thompson (2016) and Foucault's (1995) theoretical framework of power, the film portrayed bullying toward students in school through the film's cinematography, sound, and mise-en-scène. The imbalance of power between the bullies and the bullied is the main factor causing acts of bullying. It shows in the difference of individual aspects such as body sizes and social standings in school, which the bullies usually have the more advantageous aspect than the bullied. The advantageous aspect makes the bullies superior, giving them a chance to cause negative impacts on the bullied personalities intentionally. The negative impact of bullying can lower the bullied self-esteem, making them feel worthless as an individual. Since bullying is also a critical issue that needs to explore further, the researcher conducts a textual analysis study to provide references to readers about bullying in children's films and raise awareness about bullying against children in schools.

Keywords


Bullying; children; imbalance of power; school; The Kid Who Would Be King

Full Text:

PDF

References


American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Bullying. American Psychological Association. Retrieved September 20, 2022, from https://www.apa.org/topics/bullying.

Bordwell, D., & Thompson, K. (2016). Film art: An introduction (11th Edn.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th Edn.). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

De Wet, C. (2016). The portrayal of bullying in contemporary South African young adult fiction. Child Abuse Research in South Africa, 17(2), 49–63. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC198064

Duncan, N. (2013). ‘If you tolerate this, then your children will be next.’ Compulsion, compression, control, and competition in secondary schooling. International Journal on School Disaffection, 10(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.18546/IJSD.10.1.03

Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. Critical Inquiry, 8(4), 777–795. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343197

Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Books.

Foucault. M. (1998). The history of sexuality: The will to knowledge. London: Penguin Books.

Hope, A. (2022). Foucault, panopticism and school surveillance research. In M. Murphy (Ed.), Social Theory and Education Research: Understanding Foucault, Habermas, Bourdieu and Derrida (2nd Edn.). London: Routledge.

Horton, P. (2016). Unpacking the bullying doll: Reflections from a fieldwork at the socialecological square. Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics, 4(1), 71–95. https://doi.org/10.3384/confero.2001-4562.170009

Hughes, J., & Laffier, J. L. (2016). Portrayals of bullying in young adult literature: Considerations for schools. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue Canadienne de l’éducation, 39(3), 1–24. https://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/2150

Hymel, S., & Swearer, S. M. (2015). Four decades of research on school bullying: An introduction. American Psychologist, 70(4), 293–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038928

Komisi Perlindungan Anak Indonesia. (2020, February 10). Sejumlah kasus bullying sudah warnai catatan masalah anak di awal 2020, begini kata komisioner KPAI. Komisi Perlindungan Anak Indonesia (KPAI). Retrieved September 20, 2022, from https://www.kpai.go.id/publikasi/sejumlah-kasus-bullying-sudah-warnai-catatan-masalah-anak-di-awal-2020-begini-kata-komisioner-kpai

Lisanti, R. (2014). Bullying Situations in Juvenile Fiction Novels: The Role of Teachers and Administrators [Master Thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]. School of Information and Library Science. https://doi.org/10.17615/1z8n-pd51

Menesini, E., & Salmivalli, C. (2017). Bullying in schools: The state of knowledge and effective interventions. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 22(sup1), 240–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2017.1279740

Oppliger, P. A., & Davis, A. (2016). Portrayals of bullying: A content analysis of picture books for preschoolers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(5), 515–526. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-015-0734-1

Schott, R. M. (2014). The life and death of bullying. In R. M. Schott, & D. M. Søndergaard (eds.), School bullying: New theories in context (pp. 185–206). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schumann, L., Craig, W., & Rosu, A. (2014). Power differentials in bullying: Individuals in a community context. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 29(5), 846–865. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260513505708

Smith, P. K. (2014). Understanding school bullying: Its nature and prevention strategies. London: SAGE Publications.

Volk, A. A., Dane, A. V., & Marini, Z. A. (2014). What is bullying? A theoretical redefinition. Developmental Review, 34(4), 327–343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2014.09.001

Wiseman, A. M., & Jones, J. S. (2018). Examining depictions of bullying in children’s picturebooks: A content analysis from 1997 to 2017. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 32(2), 190–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2017.1419320




DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/psg.v11i2.56467

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2023 Passage

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.