Privatized Interiorities and Epiphanic Experiences: Intradiegetic Listening and the Cultural Construction of Classical Music in Contemporary European and American Cinema

Abstract Focusing on contemporary European and American cinema, this article examines how subjectivity is constructed in scenes depicting listening to classical music. I argue that such listening is rendered as a withdrawal into a privatized interiority. However, depictions of characters’ musical responses also suggest that they are undergoing strong epiphanic experiences. Cinematic depictions of classical music listening thus constitute a composite representational trope, one that reproduces deep-seated conceptions of classical music's aesthetic and cultural autonomy.