stories of shame & moving through shame
July 7, 2020 5:52 PM Subscribe
What are some fictional media (books, movies, etc.) about shame, and especially the experience of processing and moving through and past shame?
Atonement
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 6:27 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 6:27 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
Elizabeth Gilbert's City of Girls gets into this, partway into the story she does something shameful and the rest is how she works through it and builds a different life for herself.
posted by phlox at 7:25 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by phlox at 7:25 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
There's the film Shame, starring Michael Fassbender.
posted by sevensnowflakes at 9:37 PM on July 7, 2020
posted by sevensnowflakes at 9:37 PM on July 7, 2020
If you like literary fiction, shame is one of the themes of AS Byatt's first novel, The Shadow of the Sun. Byatt's protagonist talks about repeatedly going over in her mind events that have caused her to feel shame, with the result that she can view them more dispassionately in the end.
posted by paduasoy at 1:27 AM on July 8, 2020
posted by paduasoy at 1:27 AM on July 8, 2020
Manchester by the Sea counts IMHO. Something tragic happens where the main character bears significant responsibility.
posted by j_curiouser at 2:04 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by j_curiouser at 2:04 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
George Eliot often has characters who become morally compromised/come to regret certain choices and have to find a way to live on anyway; I think she treats the topic with a lot of emotional intelligence. My favourite example for this is probably Gwendolyn Harleth in Daniel Deronda, but there's also a lot of human fraility, shame and redemption in Middle March.
Processing and moving through shame is also an important element of Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavrandsatter. The novel is set in medieval Norway, so religion plays an important role in the process - I didn't find the novel preachy, but it's very much steeped in that mindset.
posted by sohalt at 3:52 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Processing and moving through shame is also an important element of Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavrandsatter. The novel is set in medieval Norway, so religion plays an important role in the process - I didn't find the novel preachy, but it's very much steeped in that mindset.
posted by sohalt at 3:52 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Ordinary People, book or movie.
posted by Bron at 5:04 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Bron at 5:04 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Doubt (2008), starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
posted by TrishaU at 5:54 AM on July 8, 2020
posted by TrishaU at 5:54 AM on July 8, 2020
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. Amazing book - also a movie, which I haven’t seen.
posted by Salamander at 6:26 AM on July 8, 2020
posted by Salamander at 6:26 AM on July 8, 2020
I don't know if you've read any of Lois McMaster Bujold's books, but in Memory (link is to a Tor.com article by Jo Walton about the book and the series; no major spoilers) our hero, Miles, whom we've seen over several books struggle and strive and scheme to overcome obstacles, spends the first third driving his life at high speed off a cliff, then the next two thirds trying to deal with what he's done.
It's one of my favorite books, but at this point when I reread it I tend to skim the first third because the depiction of how it's possible, with apparent clear eyes and forethought, to make an utterly terrible decision, is so accurate it's painful.
As the Jo Walton article says, Memory is a lot more impactful if you've read earlier books in the series. Several of them deal with shame in various ways. Both of Miles's parents have experienced shame and have had to learn how to live with it and come back from it. In the later book A Civil Campaign (link is to another Jo Walton article on Tor.com), Miles once again humiliates himself and has to try to redeem himself.
Shards of Honor is the first book in the series and a good place to start.
posted by Lexica at 8:11 PM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
It's one of my favorite books, but at this point when I reread it I tend to skim the first third because the depiction of how it's possible, with apparent clear eyes and forethought, to make an utterly terrible decision, is so accurate it's painful.
As the Jo Walton article says, Memory is a lot more impactful if you've read earlier books in the series. Several of them deal with shame in various ways. Both of Miles's parents have experienced shame and have had to learn how to live with it and come back from it. In the later book A Civil Campaign (link is to another Jo Walton article on Tor.com), Miles once again humiliates himself and has to try to redeem himself.
Shards of Honor is the first book in the series and a good place to start.
posted by Lexica at 8:11 PM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by bunderful at 6:10 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]