The power of the vulnerable in Amy Winehouse: abysmal plans of a cinebiographical narrativity

Abstract

In this article, I intend to develop the hypothesis that there are two ways of thinking about the phenomenon of precariousness. The first way consists in taking the vulnerable as what prevents the realization of a life project, when it arises in any field. The second way of dealing with precariousness is to conceive it not as what prevents, but as what is a crucial part of the uncertain, and indeterminate realization of a life. In these terms, precariousness is the feature of what moves between doing and not doing. The aim is to follow the marks of precariousness or vulnerability that are produced, in certain modes of discourse, in the field of film narratives about the lives of singers. I want to analyze a case of cine-biography, among many others, where acts and practices of life erode the voice and put it at risk. Here the object of analysis is the filmic narration on the tragic story of the British singer Amy Winehouse: Amy, by Asif Kaadia, 2015.