Laura Mulvey 1941-

Biography
Born: 15 August 1941, Oxford, England, UK studied history at St. Hilda's, Oxford University Early 1970s - came to prominence in the as a lm theorist, writing for periodicals such as Spare Rib and Seven Days 1974 and 1982 -co-wroted and co-directed the lms with Peter Wollen Worked at British Film Institute for many years Professor of Film and Media Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London 1975 essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema-helped establish feminist lm theory as a legitimate eld of study

Filmography
Co-wrote and co-directed with Peter Wollen: Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974) Riddles of the Sphinx (1977) AMY! (1980) Crystal Gazing (1982) Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti (1982) The Bad Sister (1982) Penthesilea (Director, 1977)) Reading the US Press (Director, 1985) Welcome Aboard Soyuz (Director, 1985) The Mark of Lilith (Actor, 1986) Disgraced Monuments (1991) co-directed with Mark Lewis

Books
Citizen Kane (Bfi Film Classics) (British Film Institute: 1992) Jimmie Durham (Phaidon Press: 1995) Fetishism and Curiosity (Indiana University Press: 1996) Death Twenty-four Times a Second: Stillness and the Moving Image (London: Reaktion Books, 2006) Experimental British Television - co-edited with Jamie Sexton (Manchester University Press: 2008)

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Goal: challenge patriarchal culture analyze the erotic aspects of mainstream lms come up with alternative solutions (new language of desire) without totally rejecting the past Tools: psychoanalysis alternative (avant-garde) cinema

Weaknesses

Psychoanalysis uses the language of the patriarchy

Alternative Cinema can only exist as a counterpoint

Psychoanalytic theory in it's current state of development is focused on status quo: patriarchal order.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Sigmund Freud
1856-1939

Jacques Lacan
1901-1981

Freud

Lacan

Modernism Post-Modernism Unconscious, bodily Social environment, causes of behavior language Psychoanalysis : Post-structuralism: Desire (social environment as Reason (conflict of psyche positive force, discord and with cultural forces) fracture constitute psyche) Questions notion of either Selfs ability to access the "self" or "truth" truth

Lacan
stages of development the tree orders (imaginary, symbolic, real) desire

Stages of Development

0-6 beginning of socialization (a first step away from the Real) (naming body parts, boundaries and separation) 6-18 recognition of the self's image precedes the entrance into language, after which the subject can understand the place of that image of the self within a larger social order. creation of an ideal version of the self gives pre-verbal impetus to the creation of narcissistic phantasies in the fully developed subject. 18-4 By acquiring language, you entered into what Lacan terms the symbolic order"; you were reduced into an empty signifier ("I") within the field of the Other, which is to say, within a field of language and culture

Law of the Father Social world

The Law of the father is in this way theorized by Lacan as the necessary mediator between the child and the mother. Child's socialization is its aspiration to be the fully satisfying object for the mother, a function which is nally (or at least normally) fullled by the Law-bearing words of the father.

Language: a radical break from any sense of materiality

Reality vs Real
Reality: fantasy world constructed through language Real: a materiality of existence beyond language and thus beyond expressibility

the unconscious is structured like language

Tension between Real and Reality / Symbolic constitute psyche

Law of the Father Social world Desire

Desire = Fantasy
therefore,

Desire = Lack

Desire

NAME-OF-THE-FATHER (Lacan): The laws and restrictions that control both your desire and the rules of communication

Law of the Father

CASTRATION COMPLEX: The early childhood fear of castration that Freud and Lacan both saw as an integral part of our psychosexual development. Its associated with restrictions, prohibition and fear. OEDIPUS COMPLEX (Lacan): being made to recognize that we cannot sleep with or even fully "have" our mother

 CASTRATION COMPLEX: The early childhood fear of castration that Freud and Lacan both saw as an integral part of our psychosexual development. The castration complex is closely associated with the Oedipus complex, according to Freud: "the reaction to the threats against the child aimed at putting a stop to his early sexual activities and attributed to his father" (Introductory Lectures) . The young child with primitive desires, in coming face to face with the laws and conventions of society (including the prohibitions against incest and murder), will tend to align prohibition with castration (something that is sometimes reinforced by parents if they warn against, for example, masturbation by saying that the child will in some way be punished bodily, eg. by going blind). Lacan builds on this Freudian concept in defining the Law of the Father.

Oedipus complex is just as important for Lacan as it is for Freud, if not more so. The difference is that Lacan maps that complex onto the acquisition of language, which he sees as analogous. The process of moving through the Oedipus Complex (of being made to recognize that we cannot sleep with or even fully "have" our mother) is our way of recognizing the need to obey social strictures and to follow a closed differential system of language in which we understand "self" in relation to "others." In this linguistic rather than biological system, the "phallus" (which must always be understood not to mean "penis") comes to stand in the place of everything the subject loses through his entrance into language (a sense of perfect and ultimate meaning or plenitude, which is, of course, impossible) and all the power associated with what Lacan terms the "symbolic father" and the Name-of-the-Father" (laws, control, knowledge). Like the phallus' relation to the penis, the "Name-of-the-Father" is much more than any actual father; in fact, it is ultimately more analogous to those social structures that control our lives and that interdict many of our actions (law, religion, medicine, education). After one passes through the Oedipus complex , the position of the phallus (a position within that differential system) can be assumed by most anyone (teachers, leaders, even the mother) and, so, to repeat, is not synonymous with either the biological father or the biological penis.

Lacan & Feminism:

PHALLOCENTRISM OR PHALLOGOCENTRISM: The privileging of the masculine (the phallus) in understanding meaning or social relations.

Lacan & Feminism: Oedipus Complex

Women socialize differently because they dont experience Castration complex and Oedipus complex The process of moving through the Oedipus complex is a way of recognizing the need to obey social strictures and to follow a closed differential system of language in which we understand "self" in relation to "others. Males give up the link to Real (deny their sexuality) in order to enter into the social world (Law-of-the-Father)

Lacan & Feminism Lack

Since women do not experience the castration complex in the same way (they do not have an actual penis that must be denied in their access to the symbolic order ), Lacan argues that women are not socialized in the same way, that they remain more closely tied to what Lacan terms "jouissance," the lost plenitude of one's material bodily drives given up by the male subject in order to access the symbolic power of the phallus. Women are thus at once more lacking (never accessing the phallus as fully) and more full (having not experienced the loss of the penis as fully).

Lacan and Feminism

Evaluation of Lacans theory: maintaining the sexist tradition in psychoanalysis provides a useful means of understanding gender biases and imposed roles opening up new possibilities for feminist theory

Mulveys Argument:
Role of Women in the patriarchal culture is reduced to signifier of the male other - bearer of the meaning, not maker of meaning

Function of woman in patriarchal unconscious: a. symbolizes the castration threat by her real absence of a penis b. raises her child into symbolic

Psychoanalysis as Language of Patriarchy

We are still separated by a great gap from important issues for the female unconscious which are scarcely relevant to psychoanalytic theory: the sexing of the female infant and her relationship to the symbolic, the sexually mature woman as non-mother, maternity outside the signification of the phallus, the vagina.... But, at this point, psychoanalytic theory as it now stands can at least advance our understanding of the status quo, of the patriarchal order in which we are caught. Mulvey

Cinema & Psychoanalysis

Manipulation of

Visual Pleasure

Erotic Hollywood

Erotic + Patriarchal Order = Hollywood

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Interweaving of erotic pleasure in film Meaning of erotic pleasure Central place of woman

The alternative is the thrill that comes from leaving the past behind without rejecting it, transcending outworn or oppressive forms, or daring to break with normal pleasurable expectations in order to conceive a new language of desire. Mulvey

Interweaving of Erotic Pleasure

Scopophilia The act of looking as a source of pleasure in itself. Freud associated scopophilia with taking other people as objects and subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze (8). In Mulveys use, the viewer derives sexual stimulation from looking at the human form, the female form in particular. Voyeurism An extreme of scopophilia. Pleasure is derived from the act of looking but without being seen. Exhibitionism The pleasure of being looked at.

Interweaving of Erotic Pleasure

Scopophilia (Freud)
Pleasure of Looking Pleasure of being looked at
Objectification (Gaze) - voyeurism Narcissism Perversion

Screen:
Voyeuristic Separationillusion of looking in on private world

Viewer:
Repression of Exhibitionism Projection of the repressed desire onto performer

Voyeuristic Separation

Pleasure of looking is reinforced Pleasure of being loocked at (ego) is repressed.

Interweaving of Erotic Pleasure

Scopophilia (Freud)
Pleasure of Looking Pleasure of being looked at
Objectification (Gaze) -voyeurism Narcissism Perversion

Mirror Stage (Lacan)

Recognition/Misrecognition Ideal Ego
Generalization of Identification with the others

Mirror Stage predates language Image is the First articulation of I or subjectivity

Looking = Self-Awareness

Mirror Stage

Recognition/Misrecognition Ideal Ego

Generalization of Identification with the others

Looking = Self-Awareness

Mirror Stage

Recognition/Misrecognition Ideal Ego

Generalization of Identification with the others

Looking = Self-Awareness

"That's what love is. It's one's own ego that one loves in love, one's own ego made real on the imaginary level." Lacan

Screen = Mirror

Cinema:
love affair/despair between image/self-image

love affair/despair between image/self-image

Cinema Contradiction:
Reinforcing ego while allows for temporary loss of ego

Cinema Contradiction

Lacan
(mirror stage)

Freud
(Scopophilia)

Cinema Contradiction: Pleasurable Structures

Scopophilic
Pleasure of using another person as an object of sexual stimulation Separation of erotic identity with the subject on the screen Sexual Instincts

Narcissism / Constitution of Ego

Identification with image seen

Identification of the ego with the object on the screen through fascination and recognition of the like (identification) Ego Libido

Pleasurable Structures:
Scopophilic

Narcissism / Constitution of Ego

Freud: Dichotomy

Pleasure: tension between instinctual drives and self-preservation

Freud: Dichotomy

Aim: indifference in perceptual reality Result: imagised, eroticized perception of the world

Cinema: Illusion of Reality

Phantasy World of the Screen is subject to the law which produces it.

Phantasy World of Cinema:

Contradiction between Ego and Libido

Desire, born with language, allows for possibility of transcending the instinctual and the imaginary, but its point of reference continually returns to the traumatic moment of its birth: the castration complex. Mulvey

Desire, born with language, allows for possibility of transcending the instinctual and the imaginary, but its point of reference continually returns to the traumatic moment of its birth: the castration complex. Mulvey

Woman

Paradox

Pleasure

Fear

Pleasurable in Form

Threatening in Context

Look: Pleasurable in form Threatening in content

Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of Look

Man

Woman

Active

Passive

Mainstream Film

Mainstream Film
her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation Mulvey

Mainstream Film
"What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance. Budd Boetticher

Erotic Object
Holds the Look Plays to & signifies male desire

Spectator

Character

Erotic Object Performs within the Narrative

Performs within the Narrative

Takes the Film into a no-mans-land outside of its own time and space Destroys the illusion of depth (Renaissance space) required by narrative

To Have and Have Not

Lauren Bacalls song takes film outside its own time and space

Close up of the face (Garbo) or legs (Dietrich) integrates into the narrative a different mode of eroticism- destroys Renaissance space, and gives flatness to the screen.

Dishonored

Dietrich-close-up of the legsflatness, cut-out of icon (looks more dramatic in the movie cinema because of the scale cinema)

Man

Cannot bear the burden of sexual identification Forwards the story Represents power Controls films phantasy (bearer of look of the spectator Requires 3-D space-he is figure in landscape

Mirror Stage Man: Bearer of Look of the spectator

Mirror Stage Man: Bearer of Look of the spectator

Mirror Stage Spectator Possesses Woman through identification

Only Angels Have Wings

Woman as glamorous object

Only Angels Have Wings

Woman falls in Love

Only Angels Have Wings

Woman becomes Property

Only Angels Have Wings

Spectator can possess Her, too.

Pleasure

Unpleasure

Escape of Castration Anxiety

1. Re-enchantment , Devaluation, Punishment & Saving (Film Noir) Fetishism -turning dangerous object into re-assuring (cult of the female star)

2.

Escape of Castration Anxiety

1. Re-enchantment , Devaluation, Punishment & Saving (Film Noir) Voyerism / sadism - ascertaining the guilt (associated with castration), asserting control and subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness. Fetishism -turning dangerous object into re-assuring (cult of the female star) Scopofilia - focus on physical beauty of the object satisfying in itself

2.

Escape of Castration Anxiety

1. Re-enchantment , Devaluation, Punishment & Saving (Film Noir) Voyerism / sadism - ascertaining the guilt (associated with castration), asserting control and subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness. Narrative-driven (sadism demands story) Fetishism -turning dangerous object into re-assuring (cult of the female star) Scopofilia - focus on physical beauty of the object satisfying in itself It can exist outside linear time (erotic instinct is focused on look alone)

2.

Hitchckock
1&2

Sternberg
1 Fetishism

Investigative voyeurism

Sternberg (fetishism)
Appreciation of screen image is more important than story and character development (pictorial space is paramount rather than narrative or identification processes) Woman as ultimate fetish the beauty of the woman and the screen space coalesce look of male protagonist is broken in favor of the erotic rapport of image and spectator woman becomes a perfect product rather than bearer of guilt perfect female body, stylized and fragmented by close-ups, is a content of the film screen is one-dimensional (the illusion of screen depth is played down) male characters are detached from audiences identification (limited meditation of the look through the eyes of the male protagonist) Stories concerned with situation rather than suspense (misunderstanding rather than the conflict), cyclical rather than linear time. controlling male gaze is absent (audience-oriented) supreme moments of erotic meaning take place in absence of male protagonist erotic impact is displayed as a spectacle for the audience the male protagonist misunderstands and does not see

Sternberg (fetishism)

Hitchcock (voyeurism)
Films explore investigative side of voyeurism

male hero sees what the audience see (point of view coincides)
fascination with the image through scopophilic erotism is the subject of the film male hero portrays contradictions and tensions experienced by the spectator identification processes and the use of subjective camera put spectator into position of male protagonist look is central to the plot (Vertigo, Rear Window) look oscilitates between voyeurism and fetishist fascination manipulation of viewing process: identification is used to show perverted side of established morality (voyeurism) Male heroes exemplify symbolic order and law Erotic drives lead them into compromised situation Woman: object / victim of power of will (sadism) and gaze (voyeurism) Power is backed up by the legal right of man and established guild of woman (castration complex)

Hitchckock
Investigative voyeurism

Sternberg
Fetishism

Male character sees what the audience sees

Male character misunderstands and does not see

Rear Window
(metaphor of the cinema)

Jeffres (voyeurism) is the audience Events in the apartment building are the screen Erotic dimension is added to his look as he watches Lisa (exhibitionism) - passive image of visual perfection Relationship is re-born erotically when she becomes guilty intruder (crosses on the screen side)

Man is on the right side of the law, woman is on the wrong

Rear Window
(metaphor of the cinema)

Jeffres (voyeurism) is the audience Events in the apartment building are the screen Erotic dimension is added to his look as he watches Lisa (exhibitionism) - passive image of visual perfection Relationship is re-born erotically when she becomes guilty intruder (crosses on the screen side)

Man is on the right side of the law, woman is on the wrong

Rear Window
(metaphor of the cinema)

Jeffres (voyeurism) is the audience Events in the apartment building are the screen Erotic dimension is added to his look as he watches Lisa (exhibitionism) - passive image of visual perfection Relationship is re-born erotically when she becomes guilty intruder (crosses on the screen side)

Man is on the right side of the law, woman is on the wrong

Subjective camera predominates (Scotties point of view) Voyeurism: Scottie follows woman and falls in love without speaking to her. Sadism: pursuit and investigation Woman: perfect image of beauty and mystery. Exhibitionism. Masochism. Womans role: play and replay her part to keep Scotties erotic interest Mans role: investigate, break woman down, expose her guilt. Patriarchal superhero within the symbolic order Spectators fascination is turned against him Active / looking passive / looked-at-ness

Man is on the right side of the law, woman is on the wrong

Summary:
Traditional narrative film plays on contradictions of scopophilic instinct and ego libido Patriarchal order demands woman as passive and man as active Woman signifies castration Voyeuristic and fetishistic mechanism of film attempt to circumvent her threat.

Film represents a perfect and beautiful contradiction of these layers through shifting emphasis of the look

Film: shifting the emphasis of the look

Place of look defines cinema, making it different from other form of spectacle Cinema highlights womens to-be-looked-at-ness Cinema builds the way woman to be looked at into spectacle Cinema creates a gaze, a world and an object through controlling time and space Gaze, World and Object of cinema produce the illusion cut to the measure of desire

Voyeristic - Scopophilic Look of Film Pleasure

Camera, Audience, and Characters constitute three looks of the cinema Traditional narrative film is focused on characters Existence of recording process (camera presence) and awareness / critical reading of the spectator is diminished It creates reality,obviousness and truth of fictional drama. Female image (as a castration threat) endangers the unity of diegesis as onedimensional fetish, that constitutes contradiction of looking in traditional narrative film Camera and Audience looks are subordinated to the neurotic needs of the male ego Camera creates a convincing world (illusion of Renaissance Space) focused on the perception of the subject Audience is presented with fetishistic representation of female image to counterbalance the castration fear

Alternative Cinema: The solution

Make audience aware of camera presence Detachment of the audience promotes dialog and critical thinking It reveals the voyeuristic mechanisms of the mainstream film Result: more complete understanding of woman and her presence in the culture

Afterwards:
Mulvey considers her article as a manifesto that opened the dialog on the subject She addressed her critiques and changed some of her opinions in a follow-up article "Afterthoughts on 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'"

Riddles of the Sphinx

(1977)

A film with questions to answer rather than answers to give.

Riddles of Sphinx
explored myth and the representation of women addresses the position of women in patriarchy through the prism of psychoanalysis attempts to construct a new relationship between the viewer and the female subject, presenting her through multiple female voices and viewpoint

Riddles of Sphinx
Louise, the narrative's female protagonist, is represented through a fragmented use of imagery and dialogue, in an attempt to break down the conventional narrative structures of framing and filming used to objectify and fetishise women in mainstream cinema.

Riddles of Sphinx

"What recurs overall is a constant return to woman, not indeed as a visual image, but as a subject of inquiry, a content which cannot be considered within the aesthetic lines laid down by traditional cinematic practice. Mulvey