Open Access
American Research Journal of English and Literature
ISSN (Online): 2378-9026
DOI: 10.46568/arjel
Deep Focus and the Expression of Materialist Fetishism in Orson Welles Citizen Kane (1941)
Abstract
This paper examines how Orson Welles uses deep focus photography to stage a social critique of materialistic fetishism
in Citizen Kane. The paper is premised on the analysis of materialist fetishism and how Welles propounds it using deep
focus and other related techniques like long takes and close ups. In this paper, I uphold Russel W. Belk’s (1985) definition
of Materialism as an orientation that reflects the importance a consumer (person) attaches to worldly possessions (291
297). A materialist is defined in this paper as any person who believes in Belk’s philosophy. Fetishism is defined in this
paper according to Karl Marx (1990) as “anything to which more respect or attention is given than is normal or sensible”
(165). This paper is grounded in the Marxist branch of sociological criticism. According to Terry Eagleton (1976), the
task of Marxist literary criticism “is to show the text as it cannot know itself, to manifest those conditions of its making
(inscribed in its very letter) about which it is necessarily silent” (428). According to George Lukacs (1963), “literature
should reflect the real world” (70).
I conclude that through the use deep focus photography, Orson Welles makes timeless criticism of capitalism and the
ills of materialism. Until society overcomes these problems, it is likely that Citizen Kane will continue as a perpetually
contemporary reminder on what is truly important in this money driven world.
