Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey

VISUAL PLEASURE AND NARRATIVE CINEMA \ by Laura Mulvey

Citation

  • Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP, 1999: 833-44.

### SUMMARY OF CONTENT

I. INTRODUCTION

  • A Political Use of Psychoanalysis

    • Objective: Explore the fascination of film through psychoanalysis.

    • Film as a reflection of sexual difference and patriarchal society’s control over images and spectacle.

    • Importance of understanding film’s magic through past experiences and theories that challenge traditional narratives.

    • Psychoanalysis serves as a political tool revealing patriarchal structures in film forms.

  • Key Concept - Phallocentrism

    • Phallocentrism relies on the image of a castrated woman to maintain order and meaning in society.

    • Women symbolize castration and cannot transcend their defined roles; they represent desire for the phallus.

    • Two-fold symbolic function:

    • Symbolizes the castration threat by lacking a penis.

    • Facilitates the child's introduction into the symbolic world.

    • Women's narrative function in patriarchy: memory of maternal abundance vs. lack.

  • Consequences of Psychoanalytic Examination

    • Acknowledges the roots of female oppression in the phallocentric order.

    • Calls upon feminists to examine the patriarchy using psychoanalytic tools.

    • Future studies must explore women’s experiences in socio-cultural contexts beyond current theories.

II. CINEMA AND PLEASURE

  • A. Scopophilia

    • Defined by Freud as pleasure derived from visual pleasure, derived from a controlling gaze.

    • Involves taking others as objects of sexual gratification; originates from childhood voyeurism.

    • Active scopophilia can degenerate into voyeurism, where only pleasure arises from watching others without interaction.

  • B. Film as an Experience Beyond Voyeurism

    • Conventional film often portrays a world seemingly indifferent to the audience’s presence—creating an illusion of voyeuristic separation.

    • Cinema transforms viewing into a personal, introspective experience, blurring lines between voyeurism and narcissism.

  • C. The Mirror Phase

    • According to Jacques Lacan, recognizing one's image in a mirror is crucial in ego development.

    • The infant's mis-recognition of the perfect mirror image contributes to a sense of identity and self-awareness, leading to fascination with the human form in cinema.

III. GENDERED VIEWING

  • A. Male vs. Female Representation

    • Cinema establishes a visual hierarchy where pleasure in looking is active (male) and passive (female).

    • The male gaze dominates film:

    • Women are often eroticized and objectified, reinforcing male fantasies.

    • Women's roles are secondary to men's narratives, acting solely as catalysts for male action.

  • B. Displacement and Identification

    • Male protagonists often control narrative, while women represent phantasy and are simultaneously sexual objects.

    • This dynamic creates tension between the audience’s gaze, the characters’ gazes, and the implications of control and eroticism.

  • C. Functional Differences

    • Men's cinema often reflects narrative structures advancing male agendas, prioritizing active stories devoid of emotional engagement with female characters.

    • The female figure serves a dual function:

    • As the sexual object for male characters.

    • Serving the audience's voyeuristic desires.

IV. PSYCHOANALYTIC DIMENSIONS IN CINEMA

  • A. Castration Anxiety and the Female Image

    • Women symbolize the threat of castration, a core anxiety in male psyches.

    • Two escape routes from this anxiety:

    • Investigation and demystification of the female figure.

    • Fetishization of woman, turning them into reassuring objects rather than threats.

  • B. Contradictory Mechanisms

    • Active voyeurism versus passive admiration creates a theatrical tension in film narratives.

    • Examples: Hitchcock’s use of voyeurism versus Sternberg’s presentation of fetishized images.

  • C. The Role of Narrative

    • Films like Vertigo exemplify the complexities of the male gaze and inner conflicts regarding desire and power dynamics.

    • Characters often embody the tensions between narrative progression and scopophilic pleasure, revealing the intricacies of visual storytelling through a gendered lens.

V. CONCLUSION

  • A. Breaking Down Spectatorial Structures

    • Challenges the traditional filmic view where the male gaze dominates and influences narrative form.

    • Psychoanalytic frameworks can help expose the inherent contradictions in cinematic representation.

  • B. Alternative Forms of Cinema

    • Not only necessary but possible to create radical cinema that acknowledges and challenges patriarchal structures.

  • C. Implications for Future Studies

    • Future work should engage with the various looks present in cinema to deconstruct the patriarchal gaze and promote a broader understanding of visual pleasure.