Laura Mulvey’s text Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)
Break down of the structure of the 3 texts:
1. her use of psychoanalysis as a feminist critical tool
Psychoanalytical theory (personality is formed through conflicts among three fundamental structures of the human mind: id, ego, and superego) is used as a political weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured the film form.
Castration is all about when the young boy develops his sense of subjectivity and raises that not everyone has the same penis he does. He develops a strong anxiety that someone will take his, he believes that women will do this because they do not have their own. The women is always the symbol of this threat in a non literal way.
2. the opportunity in contemporary cinema for more radical forms that break away from patriarchal influence
Modern cinema must start by reacting against these obsessions and assumptions so that the visual pleasure can be manipulated to move away from the 'normal' pleasurable expectations of the patriarchal influence. this will allow a new language of desire to be built.
3. explanation of scopophilia ... how it relates to cinema
Scopohilia is the pleasure in looking, of which Freud associated to be one of the component instincts of sexuality. Scopohilia is seen to be the act of taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze. The extreme contrast between the darkness in the auditorium and the brilliance of light on the screen creates an element of separation, allowing the audience to look in on the 'private' world and form a repressed desire onto the performer.
4. explanation of narcissistic pleasure ... how it relates to cinema
A contradiction in cinematic pleasure has been identified; suggesting that we gain pleasure from looking at another individual without then knowing that we are looking (voyeuristic scopophilia - character acting as if we do not exist). Narcissistic scopophilia is when there is a connection between us and the character in which we have identified as an idealised version of ourselves. The job of the female character is to become the object of voyeuristic scopophilia and the job of the male character is to be the vessel for narcissistic scopophilia. It relates to the cinema because you recognise yourself in the characters that are on screen, it is the identification which then lets those character guide our personalities.
5. summary of the two forms of visual pleasure ... and a discussion of the castration threat
It is the women that is always positioned as the threat that the men have to try to subjugate in some kind of way. The division is not thought to be enough to secure the male pleasure, meaning there is still a threat of castration anxiety.
Two ways: narratively, the female character is punished for her 'misguided' lifestyle, and visually, where a fetishised object is used to 'replace' the missing phallus. (stilettos heels)
6. the roles that men and women play in cinema and spectatorship - active/male, passive/women
Male characters drive the plot forward while female characters are just there to be seen. It has been shown that the female character performs for an audience of predominately men, not furthering the plot but only showing off the woman.
The viewers are thought to identify with the characters on screen and put themselves in their lives, idealising them as characters.
7. the constant threat of castration and how the male unconscious relinquishes it
Preoccupation wit the reenactment of the original trauma and being curious about the females body.
Storey, J(2001) Cultural theory and Popular Culture:
Cine-psychoanalysis:
- analysis of Laura Mulvey's text, secondary text
- aimed at students, explains/explores the original text, interpretation
- recognise difference in texts, always look at primary texts
Dyer, R (1979) Stars:
- argument against Mulvey
- presenting a counter argument to counter but not contrast
- incorporates Mulvey's idea but develops them further with the psychoanalytical theory
In terms of graphic design:
- male gaze used when investigating advertising and social media
- rekate theories to visual circumstances
- developing theories further based on argument
Diegesis - tone of voice
Verisimilitude - the appearance of being true or real
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