Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema – Laura Mulvey
What type of document is it? Who is the author?
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema is a short essay
written by Laura Mulvey who is a British feminist film theorist.
In summary, what is being discussed/argued?
· - Mulvey argues that the popularity
of Hollywood films is determined and reinforced by preexisting social patterns,
which have shaped the fascinated subject.
· - Hollywood narrative films use
women in order to provide a pleasurable visual experience for men.
· - Deology is involved in forming
the subjectivity of the individual at the level of the unconscious - and that
is how a female spectator, through borrowing the male gaze, takes the ideology
of a patriarchal society, which is imposed.
J. Storey - Cultural Theory and Popular Culture
Who is the author?
J. Storey is an author. He has been writing books based on cultural theory and popular culture. He is also a professor of Cultural Studies and director of the centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies.
In summary, what is being discussed/argued?
- The ideology of romantic love
- The Oedipus complex is a Freudian theory
- He references Mulvey in his book
- He explains the concept of the mirror phase
- Scopophilia and narcissism
R. Dyers - Stars
Who is the author?
- Richard Dyer is an English academic.
- He is currently holding a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London.
- Specialises in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment and representations of race, sexuality, and gender.
- He was previously a faculty member of the Film Studies Department at the University of Warwick.
- Written essays on race and culture.
What is being discussed?
- The relationship between stars and spectators.
R. Dyers - Stars
Who is the author?
- Richard Dyer is an English academic.
- He is currently holding a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London.
- Specialises in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment and representations of race, sexuality, and gender.
- He was previously a faculty member of the Film Studies Department at the University of Warwick.
- Written essays on race and culture.
What is being discussed?
- The relationship between stars and spectators.
300 word summary triangulating discussed texts about what is argued and how they relate to each other.
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Laura Mulvey, John Storey they all discuss the role of gender in film and the way woman and men are portrayed. Laura Mulvey is a British feminist and is also a film theorist within her book 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative cinema she discusses the theory about the concept of scopophilia. This is deriving pleasure from looking. She also states that in film women are typically the objects, rather than the possessors, of gaze because the control of the camera comes from factors such as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film genres. Mulvey argues that the film is directed to play the 'Male Gaze' by presenting both a strong male character that viewers can relate to but also presenting a female who is presented as 'erotic object for the characters within the screen story and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium'. John Storey has a similar view to Mulvey on the 'Male Gaze' and he references the Freudian theory of scopophilia in his book 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture'. He reference Mulvey stating 'She gives example of the showgirl who can be seen to dance for both looks. When the heroine removes her clothes, it is the sexual gaze of both the narrative and the spectator in the auditorium'. However Richard Dyer has a different view on 'Male Gaze'. Dyer criticises that the moviegoer is a heterosexual male, brining that the moviegoer may be homosexual or female. Whereas Mulvey and Storey both focus and assume that the moviegoer is a heterosexual male.
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