Feminist film theory, however, like most film theories, has a tendency to be ahistorical. Feminist film theory is a film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory. While Lola Young argues that filmmakers of all races fail to break away from the use to tired stereotypes when depicting black women. Feminist theory emerged from these feminist movements. "And The Mirror Cracked: Feminist Cinema and Film Theory. Feminist film theory, however, like most film theories, has a tendency to be ahistorical. Analysis generally focused on the meaning within a film's text and the way in which the text constructs a viewing subject. [37][38] Feminist film theory of the last twenty years is heavily influenced by the general transformation in the field of aesthetics, ncluding the new options of articulating the gaze, offered by psychoanalytical French feminism,[39]. [20][21] Jane Gaines's Women's Film Pioneer Project (WFPP), a database of women who worked in the silent-era film industry, has been cited as a major achievement in recognizing pioneering women in the field of silent and non-silent film by scholars such as Rachel Schaff. With the advancements in film throughout the years feminist film theory has developed and changed to analyse the current ways of film and also go back to analyse films past. "Women’s Cinema as Counter Cinema.". The relationship between the two female protagonists, one black and the other white, highlights the complex relationship between gender and race, which in turn throws … Feminist film theory here becomes more focused on context, history, and lived experience rather than the generalizing tendency of psychoanalysis. a metaphor for feminist film theory's search for an analytical. [21], As of recent years many believe feminist film theory to be a fading area of feminism with the massive amount of coverage currently around media studies and theory. Feminist Film Theory documentary by Summer Konechny, Kjersten Gaminek, Brianne Anderson. [28], Coming from a black feminist perspective, American scholar, bell hooks, put forth the notion of the “oppositional gaze,” encouraging black women not to accept stereotypical representations in film, but rather actively critique them. Rich's essay In the Name of Feminist Film Criticism claims that films by women often receive praise for certain elements, while feminist undertones are ignored. [8], Beginning in the early 1980s feminist film theory began to look at film through a more intersectional lens. Additionally, feminist critiques also examine common stereotypes depicted in film, the extent to which the women were shown as active or passive, and the amount of screen time given to women. Emily Poole J320 3/9/2018 Final Paper The Other Feminist Film Theory During the mid-20th century, second and third wave feminism swept the nation. She argues that in order for women to be equally represented in the workplace, women must be portrayed as men are: as lacking sexual objectification. Rich goes on to say that because of this feminist theory needs to focus on how film by women are being received. Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory influenced by Second Wave Feminism and brought about around the 1970s in the United States. Home Page Research Feminist film theory. Feminism film theory 1. [1] Initially in the United States in the early 1970s feminist film theory was generally based on sociological theory and focused on the function of female characters in film narratives or genres. Feminist film theory History. Academia.edu uses cookies to personalize content, tailor ads and improve the user experience. "Visual Pleasure" is one of the first major essays that helped shift the orientation of film theory towards a psychoanalytic framework. Some Film Theory Focuses: Apparatus theory. Laura Mulvey was one of the first to propose a feminist perspective on film analysis and criticism. The growing female presence in the film industry was seen as a positive step toward realizing this goal, by drawing attention to feminist issues and putting forth an alternative, true-to-life view of women. Although it often gets reduced to key theoretical—primarily psychoanalytic—analyses of spectatorship from the 1970s and 1980s, it has always been and continues to be a dynamic area with many objects of focus and diverse methodological practices. Yahoo Entertainment's Gwynne Watkins makes the argument of why 'The Little Mermaid' is a feminist film. The development of feminist film theory and criticism in the United States has been shaped by three major forces, all of which are, like feminist film theory itself, phenomena of the late 1960s and early 1970s: the women's movement, independent filmmaking, and academic film It. For Mulvey, it is the presence of the female that defines the patriarchal order of society as well as the male psychology of thought. [2], In contrast, film theoreticians in England concerned themselves with critical theory, psychoanalysis, semiotics, and Marxism. such, to. The feminist movements focused on combating the roles associated with being a woman and, in turn, lead them to critique how women are represented in media. [24], The early work of Marjorie Rosen and Molly Haskell on the representation of women in film was part of a movement to depict women more realistically, both in documentaries and narrative cinema. Carol Clover, in her popular and influential book, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton University Press, 1992), argues that young male viewers of the Horror Genre (young males being the primary demographic) are quite prepared to identify with the female-in-jeopardy, a key component of the horror narrative, and to identify on an unexpectedly profound level. of. Scholars are also taking increasingly global perspectives, responding to postcolonialist criticisms of perceived Anglo- and Eurocentrism in the academy more generally. 2. feminist film theory -and that image has often been cited, rightly, by feminists, Mulvey identifies three "looks" or perspectives that occur in film which, she argues, serve to sexually objectify women. [11] Feminist Film Theory 1729 Words | 7 Pages. Camera Obscura is still published to this day by Duke University Press and has moved from just film theory to media studies. Feminist theory has been foundational to the establishment and development of film studies as a discipline. we do not own any of the clips used in this film. The idea of feminist film theory is to study film from multiple feminist theoretical perspectives and not in an unilateral singular manner. [5], In 1976 the journal Camera Obscura was published by beginning grad students Janet Bergstrom, Sandy Flitterman, Elisabeth Lyon, and Constance Penley to talk about how women where in films but they were excluded in the development of those films or erased from the process. The essays in this volume, written by prominent scholars and filmmakers, demonstrate the challenges that feminist perspectives pose for documentary theory, history… For the past twenty-five years, cinema has been a vital terrain on which feminist debates about culture, representation, and identity have been fought. Mulvey calls for an eradication of female sexual objectivity, aligning herself with second-wave feminism. Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory influenced by Second Wave Feminism and brought about around the 1970s in the United States. the male gaze and its voyeurisms. In order to under s tand how feminist film theory has shaped, we must first look at the history of feminism briefly. Feminist film theory, such as Marjorie Rosen's Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies, and the American Dream (1973) and Molly Haskell’s From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in Movies (1974) analyz… [26] Initially, the attempt to show "real" women was praised, eventually critics such as Eileen McGarry claimed that the "real" women being shown on screen were still just contrived depictions. [19] Scholars in recent years have also turned their attention towards women in the silent film industry and their erasure from the history of those films and women's bodies and how they are portrayed in the films. This anthology charts the history of those debates, bringing together the key, classic essays in feminist film theory. History. Page 20-23. While Laura Mulvey's paper has a particular place in the feminist film theory, it is important to note that her ideas regarding ways of watching the cinema (from the voyeuristic element to the feelings of identification) are important to some feminist film theorists in terms of defining spectatorship from the psychoanalytical viewpoint. List of select feminist film theorists and critics. With the advancements in film throughout the years feminist film theory has developed and changed to analyse the current ways of film and also go back to analyse films past. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. The heyday of second-wave feminism, saw the birth of feminist film theory, which became concerned with female representations in the Continue Reading. “In the Name of Feminist Film Criticism. Evidence that feminist film theory not only changes how you see the world, but changes the world itself. Laura Mulvey, in response to these and other criticisms, revisited the topic in "Afterthoughts on 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' inspired by Duel in the Sun" (1981). Feminist Film Theory: A Reader: Amazon.it: Thornham, Sue: Libri in altre lingue Selezione delle preferenze relative ai cookie Utilizziamo cookie e altre tecnologie simili per migliorare la tua esperienza di acquisto, per fornire i nostri servizi, per capire come i nostri clienti li utilizzano in modo da poterli migliorare e per visualizzare annunci pubblicitari. With the advancements in film throughout the years feminist film theory has developed and changed to analyse the current ways of film and also go back to analyse films past. Beyond the Gaze: Recent Approaches to Film Feminisms. Eventually, these ideas gained hold within the American scholarly community in the 1980s. Feminist Film Theory Draft for the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. It is manifest in a variety of disciplines such as feminist geography, feminist history and feminist literary criticism. "[23]:28 Mulvey argues that the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan is the key to understanding how film creates such a space for female sexual objectification and exploitation through the combination of the patriarchal order of society, and 'looking' in itself as a pleasurable act of scopophilia, as "the cinema satisfies a primordial wish for pleasurable looking."[23]:31. Feminist film history is often seen as having emerged as an academic subfield in the mid- to late 1970s, alongside a general “historical turn” by which film scholars came to emphasize archival research and historical contextualization over high theory and semiotic analysis. Feminist film history is often seen as having emerged as an academic subfield in the mid- to late 1970s, alongside a general “historical turn” by which film scholars came to emphasize archival research and historical contextualization over high theory and semiotic analysis. [17] The matrixial gaze offers the female the position of a subject, not of an object, of the gaze, while deconstructing the structure of the subject itself, and offers border-time, border-space and a possibility for compassion and witnessing. See also. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. The idea of feminist film theory is to study film from multiple feminist theoretical perspectives and not in an unilateral singular manner. Ettinger's notions articulate the links between aesthetics, ethics and trauma. [12] Her concept, from her book, The Matrixial Gaze,[13] has established a feminine gaze and has articulated its differences from the phallic gaze and its relation to feminine as well as maternal specificities and potentialities of "coemergence", offering a critique of Sigmund Freud's and Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis, is extensively used in analysis of films,[14][15] by female directors, like Chantal Akerman,[16] as well as by male directors, like Pedro Almodovar. Rich, B. Ruby. Increased focus has been given to, "disparate feminisms, nationalisms, and media in various locations and across class, racial, and ethnic groups throughout the world". "New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. Initially in the United States in the early 1970s feminist film theory was generally based on sociological theory and focused on the function of female characters in film narratives or genres. Mulvey's contribution, however, initiated the intersection of film theory, psychoanalysis and feminism. As these areas have grown the framework created in feminist film theory have been adapted to fit into analysing other forms of media.[22]. This third perspective allows the male audience to take the female character as his own personal sex object because he can relate himself, through looking, to the male character in the film. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. pp. Like feminist theory in general, feminist film theory has undergone considerable change and revision since its heady days of the early 1970s. Jane Gaines's essay "White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory" examined the erasure of black women in cinema by white male filmmakers. Budd Boetticher summarizes the view: Laura Mulvey expands on this conception to argue that in cinema, women are typically depicted in a passive role that provides visual pleasure through scopophilia,[23]:30 and identification with the on-screen male actor. In: Laura Doyle (ed.). Criticism. It also examined how the process of cinematic production affects how women are represented and reinforces sexism. The film journal Jump Cut published a special issue about titled "Lesbians and Film" in 1981 which examined the lack of lesbian identities in film. Introduction In the 1960s and 70s the second wave of feminism and the development of women’s studies influenced the development of feminist film theory. Feminist Film Theory is a theoretical film criticism derived from Feminist Theory that was brought about during the second wave of feminism and largely developed by the introduction to Women’s Studies in 1960 and 1970. In addressing the heterosexual female spectator, she revised her stance to argue that women can take two possible roles in relation to film: a masochistic identification with the female object of desire that is ultimately self-defeating, or a transgender identification with men as the active viewers of the text. [27], B. Ruby Rich argues that feminist film theory should shift to look at films in a broader sense. Feminist Film Theory, generally is about theoretical film criticism that arises from feminist... Feminist Film makers. She argues for a removal of the voyeurism encoded into film by creating distance between the male spectator and the female character. forthcoming from Oxford University Press, edited by Michael Kelly by Cynthia A. Freeland Note: This html conversion does not include some format conventions such as underlining or italics in titles. This gave rise to a contradiction: whereas feminist film Contemporary film theory syllabi tend to represent feminist film theory as a moment in the past, signified by Laura Mulvey‟s 1975 Screen manifesto, “Visual fPleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Though the piece is itself almost too well-known, students often encounter it out of context (see Merck). Collections Focus July: Feminist Cinema Sophie Mayer, for many years a frequent BFI Reuben Library visitor, has personally selected our display of 40 books to coincide with July 2016’s library event. Prior to Mulvey, film theorists such as Jean-Louis Baudry and Christian Metz used psychoanalytic ideas in their theoretical accounts of cinema. The second is the perspective of the spectator as they see the female character on screen. “Introduction: Recent Approaches to Film Feminisms.”, Johnston, Claire. [29] [30] A new version of the gaze was offered in the early 1990s by Bracha Ettinger, who proposed the notion of the "matrixial gaze". Feminism, a belief in the political, economic and cultural equality of women, has roots in the earliest eras of human civilization. By using our site, you agree to our collection of information through the use of cookies. The development of feminist film theory was influenced by second wave feminism and women's studies in the 1960s and 1970s. Patricia Erens, ed. Feminist film history is often seen as having emerged as an academic subfield in the mid- to late s, alongside a general “historical turn” by which film scholars came to emphasize archival research and historical contextualiza- tion over high theory and semiotic analysis.1 However, this founding myth con- ceals the profound degree of imbrication between feminist film history and … Other theorists who wrote about feminist film theory and race include bell hooks and Michele Wallace. The study of feminist legal theory is a school thought based on the feminist view that law’s treatment of women in relation to men has not been equal or fair. You can download the paper by clicking the button above. [30] In "The Master's Dollhouse: Rear Window," Tania Modleski argues that Hitchcock's film, Rear Window, is an example of the power of male gazer and the position of the female as a prisoner of the "master's dollhouse".[31]. Prominent scholars: Christine Gledhill, Tania Modleski, Annette Kuhn, Jackie Stacey, bell hooks Page 7-8. Feminist film theory criticizes classical cinema for its stereotyped representation of women. In reaction to this article, many women filmmakers integrated "alternative forms and experimental techniques" to "encourage audiences to critique the seemingly transparent images on the screen and to question the manipulative techniques of filming and editing". [25], Claire Johnston put forth the idea that women's cinema can function as "counter cinema." For the past twenty-five years, cinema has been a vital terrain on which feminist debates about culture, representation and identity have been fought. [4], Mulvey proposes in her notes to the Criterion Collection DVD of Michael Powell's controversial film, Peeping Tom (a film about a homicidal voyeur who films the deaths of his victims), that the cinema spectator's own voyeurism is made shockingly obvious and even more shockingly, the spectator identifies with the perverted protagonist. The... Queer theory. The development of feminist film theory was influenced by second wave feminism and women's studies in the 1960s and 1970s. [23]:28 She asserts: "In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness,"[23]:28 and as a result contends that in film a woman is the "bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning. To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. [23]:28, In the paper, Mulvey calls for a destruction of modern film structure as the only way to free women from their sexual objectification in film. The only way to do so, Mulvey argues, is by destroying the element of voyeurism and "the invisible guest". Feminists have many approaches to cinema analysis, regarding the film elements analyzed and their theoretical underpinnings. List of notable feminist film theorists and critics. Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory influenced by Second Wave Feminism and brought about around the 1970s in the United States. Feminism has altered predominant perspectives in a wide range of areas within Western society, ranging from culture to … March is Women’s History Month, the perfect time to dust off your copy of The Feminine Mystique—or hit play any one of these amazing films made for, by, … is, of. [6], Other key influences come from Metz's essay The Imaginary Signifier, "Identification, Mirror," where he argues that viewing film is only possible through scopophilia (pleasure from looking, related to voyeurism), which is best exemplified in silent film. Additionally the film incorporates aspects of feminist film theory, including notions of the male gaze. [18], Recently, scholars have expanded their work to include analysis of television and digital media. Janet Bergstrom's article “Enunciation and Sexual Difference” (1979) uses Sigmund Freud's ideas of bisexual responses, arguing that women are capable of identifying with male characters and men with women characters, either successively or simultaneously. Feminist scholars began taking cues from the new theories arising from these movements to analyzing film. seeing with the mind's eye. Mulvey also asserts that the dominance men embody is only so because women exist, as without a woman for comparison, a man and his supremacy as the controller of visual pleasure are insignificant. framework, which goes beyond the question. Let us know in the comments if you agree … The first is the perspective of the male character and how he perceives the female character. Additionally, they have begun to explore notions of difference, engaging in dialogue about the differences among women (part of movement away from essentialism in feminist work more generally), the various methodologies and perspectives contained under the umbrella of feminist film theory, and the multiplicity of methods and intended effects that influence the development of films. Some scholars says that roots of feminism … VDM Verlag Dr. Müller: 2009, 128 p. (German), This page was last edited on 31 January 2021, at 02:41. "And The Mirror Cracked: Feminist Cinema and Film Theory. To learn more, view our, Feminist Film Theorists (Routledge Critical Thinkers) pdf, Routledge Critical Thinkers Shohini Chaudhuri Feminist Film Theorists Routledge2006, Pain and pleasures of the look: The female gaze in Malaysian horror film, The Female Spectator: Contexts and Directions. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" was composed during the period of second-wave feminism, which was concerned with achieving equality for women in the workplace, and with exploring the psychological implications of sexual stereotypes. [30] Miriam Hansen, in "Pleasure, Ambivalence, Identification: Valentino and Female Spectatorship" (1984) put forth the idea that women are also able to view male characters as erotic objects of desire. Documentary and feminist film studies have long been separate or parallel universes that need to converse or collide. This gave rise to a contradiction: whereas feminist film Raberger, Ursula: New Queer Oz: Feministische Filmtheorie und weibliche Homosexualiät in zwei Filmen von Samantha Lang. McHugh, Kathleen and Vivian Sobchack. However, Rosen and Haskell argue that these images are still mediated by the same factors as traditional film, such as the "moving camera, composition, editing, lighting, and all varieties of sound." References. hooks, bell. This theory, dominant in the 1970s, says that ALL movies were made to reflect some reality and... Feminist Film Theory. [7] Also, according to Cynthia A. Freeland in "Feminist Frameworks for Horror Films," feminist studies of horror films have focused on psychodynamics where the chief interest is "on viewers' motives and interests in watching horror films". Through consciousness of the means of production and opposition of sexist ideologies, films made by women have the potential to posit an alternative to traditional Hollywood films. [23], Mulvey's argument is likely influenced by the time period in which she was writing. “The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators.”, African-American women's suffrage movement, List of female film and television directors, http://www.asu.edu/courses/fms504/total-readings/mulvey-visualpleasure.pdf, "Feminist Film Criticism in the 21st Century", Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, New Review of Film and Television Studies, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Feminist_film_theory&oldid=1003870319, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Bracha L. Ettinger (1999), "Matrixial Gaze and Screen: Other than Phallic and Beyond the Late Lacan." Smelik, Anneke. [9], From 1985 onward the Matrixial theory of artist and psychoanalyst Bracha L. Ettinger[10] revolutionized feminist film theory. Feminist theory is highly influential on film theory and criticism; it investigates how mostly women/femininity and also men/masculinity are represented. Feminist film theory, such as Marjorie Rosen's Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies, and the American Dream (1973) and Molly Haskell’s From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in Movies (1974) analyze the ways in which women are portrayed in film, and how this relates to a broader historical context. Feminist Film Theory Feminist Film Theory. [3], British feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey, best known for her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the influential British film theory journal, Screen[4] was influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.
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