New York, Routledge. Williams, L. (1996). Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Grant, B.K. Braudy, L. and M. Cohen (eds.). Frühe Schriften (1904–1912). Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is a perfect lens through which to evaluate horror films and the effects of them. Included among these critics are analytic philosophers, film aestheticians, sociologists and cultural theorists, cognitive and feminist film theorists, and empirical psychologists. Author retrieves from his unconscious the memories of his childhood when he used to listen stories of witches. (ed.). Elizabeth Cowie, University of Kent Book Description. Penley, C. (1989). Eschewing the bogus idea of “pure” meta-theoretical inquiry conducted by people with no first-order attachment to their arguments and conclusions, Freud’s Worst Nightmares responds to the need for critical dialogue amongst psychoanalytic horror film scholars and those of other theoretical and disciplinary stripes. The same cannot be said of psychoanalytic film theory in general, which has certainly seen its fair share of internal controversy. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 701-715. This is because, in general, such objections would be fatal to psychoanalysis if proven correct. Han-yu Huang. Bordwell, D. and N. Carroll (eds.). Sparks fly across the pages as the philosophical and epistemological premises of theories of horror are themselves subjected to analysis and evaluation as well as, in some cases, rejection. “Cognitivism, Contemporary Film Theory and Method: A Response to Warren Buckland” (1992). “Philosophical Problems Concerning the Concept of Pleasure in Psychoanalytic Theories of (the Horror) Film.” Freud’s Worst Nightmares: Psychoanalysis and the Horror Film. (2), Arguably, one example of this sort of unproductive pluralism centers on the post-structural psychoanalytic claim that at the heart of cinematic horror lies a patriarchal fear of female sexuality. For more information, contact William Rothman or Steven Jay Schneider. All the while the horror film, … While such diversity might be held up as indicative of the fertility of psychoanalysis in this area, “from the point of view of critics of psychoanalytical film theory, there is no genuine disagreement among psychoanalytical theorists of the horror film- simply pluralism.” This is because such theorists typically “do not dialectically engage with each others’ theories by (a) showing why candidates for repressed mental content proposed by other theorists cannot explain the phenomenon they want to explain; or (b) showing why their candidate does explain the phenomenon better than others” (n. 9). After all, how many scholars would actually be willing to expend the time and energy needed to defend psychoanalytic theory as applied to the horror film without having a pet application of their own that they believe is well worth defending? (1). These two theories put forth the development in the film theories like feminist film theory. But unless and until the necessary qualifications are proffered, they stand in evident conflict. In Shame indeed it is not until Sissy and Brandon live side by side again as adults that they are forced to face the problems created by their unhealthy sexual behavior. Application of psychoanalytic theory on Witches and Other Night Fears. Mendik, X. This volume seeks to find the proper … (1993: 14). Batsford, Ltd. Jancovich, M. (1995). Freud’s influence in the twentieth century film is undeniable, as we see psychoanalysts replacin… The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings (Fifth Edition). While this is a broad and fruitful area of study, work in it has been shaped by a pronounced emphasis upon psychoanalytic theory, which I Poststructuralism looked beyond the constraints of the text and put into question the notions outside the text, notably those of subjectivity and culture. Psychoanalytic film theory is a school of academicm thought that evokes of the concepts of psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.The theory is closely tied to Critical theory, Marxist film theory, and Apparatus theory.The theory is separated into two waves. Clearly, the pluralism Turvey has in mind here is not of the productive or “methodologically robust” type advocated by Noël Carroll. Jancovich, M. (1992). Those who seek, or else just care enough, to defend a psychoanalytic approach to horror cinema inevitably have a pre-existing investment in applied psychoanalysis. Steven Jay Schneider has published widely on the horror film and related genres in journals such as Scope, Other Voices, Kinoeye and Senses of Cinema. Miller, T. and R. Stam (eds.). Meanwhile, Stephen Neale and others argue that horror film monsters are predominantly defined as male, with women as their primary victims: “In this respect, it could well be maintained that it is women’s sexuality, that which renders them desirable-but also threatening-to men, which constitutes the real problem that the [sic] horror cinema exists to explore” (1980: 61). Despite the negative claim by its leading practitioners that what unites Post-Theoretical scholarship is simply a lack of reliance “upon the psychoanalytic framework that dominates film academia” (Bordwell and Carroll 1996: xvi), critics of psychoanalysis as applied to the horror genre may well diverge when it comes to questions concerning the in/dispensability of psychoanalytic film theory per se. Mulvey, L. (1999). However, the 1970s and 1980s saw the development of theory that took concepts developed by the French psychoanalyst and writer Jacques Lacan and applied them to the experience of watching a film. Put another way, analyzing the film with psychoanalytic theory rationalizes the girls’ actions, which strengths Pauline and Juliet’s three-dimensional characterization. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings (Fifth Edition). As Malcolm Turvey details in his contribution to this volume, for instance, a survey of the various explanations offered up by psychoanalytic film theorists concerning the puzzling … Han-yu Huang. Founded in 1999, Senses of Cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional, high quality film-related content on the Internet. This volume seeks to find the proper place of psychoanalytic thought in critical discussion of cinema … In this dense anthology, for every standard criticism of psychoanalysis there is an equally compelling argument for its use in analyzing According to Carroll, methodologically robust pluralism only occurs when competing theories are held up against one another for the purpose of weeding out the weak ones. Over the past thirty years, a plethora of publications have argued in favor of a specific psychoanalytic approach to some dimension or convention of cinematic horror. Click here to make a donation. In recent years, psychoanalytic theory has been the subject of attacks from philosophers, cultural critics, and scientists who have questioned the cogency of its reasoning as well as the soundness of its premises. The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. But neither did it seem too exciting an idea. Sparks fly across the pages as the philosophical and epistemological premises of theories of horror are themselves subjected to analysis and evaluation as well as, in some cases, rejection. And really, why should they? Bordwell, D. and N. Carroll (1996). Others may explore the hidden drives and desires of a character or characters in a novel way. Sigmund Freud's model of normal human consciousness connects to horror cinema through his vision of abnormality: the origin and effects of the monstrous, the disgusting, the hidden, the murderous, the perverse. (4). This was to be a book about psychoanalytic theories of the horror film, rather than a book which merely offered still more new and/or improved (or not) psychoanalytic theories of the horror film. What is equally interesting is the way the film portrays the role of the family in this process. (Memento vom 28. Unfortunately, the trend has been for psychoanalytic horror film theorists to downplay the tensions between their respective positions rather than attempt to resolve or revise them. Psychoanalytic film theory occurred in two distinct waves. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press: 37-70. Zizek, S. (2001). (3). (1997). Such films may force a more active participation on the part of the viewer in the process of meaning creation that occurs between film, filmmakers, and spectator. (1986). Psychoanalysts have always held family life to be extremely important in the processes of socialization and maturation. As Richard Allen has observed, both Williams and Creed contest aspects of Mulvey’s position by identifying “scenarios of female empowerment in the horror film in which the threat of castration [i]s not contained, but acted out in the narrative” (1999: 140). According to this paradigm, the threat of castration (absence and lack) posed by images of the female form in Hollywood cinema is contained through a sexualized objectification of that form, whether fetishistic-scopophilic (woman displayed as erotic spectacle, rendered unthreatening by the controlling male look) or sadistic-voyeuristic (woman investigated, demystified, and eventually controlled through punishment) in nature. (1995). Please check your email for instructions on resetting your password. Braudy, L. and M. Cohen (eds.). The human mind is a cipher that not even the historic psychoanalytical theory has been able to decode. In reference to horror film, psychoanalysis is as close to essential as any conceptual model can get. Clover, C. (1987). Conte will have to solve the mystery through psychoanalysis if he wishes to save his wife. (1993). and you may need to create a new Wiley Online Library account. London, Creation Books: 110-133. In The Monstrous-Feminine Barbara Creed challenges this patriarchal view by arguing that the prototype of all definitions of the monstrous is the female reproductive body. Three sophisticated horror movies are interpreted from the perspective of Homo ludens and the Theatrum mundi-metaphor, in which the boundaries between fiction and reality are called into question in creative ways.Adler, Alfred (1910c/2007): Der psychische Hermaphroditismus im Leben und in der Neurose. Schneider, S. “Why Horror? The character of Norman Bates became a revolutionary breakthrough in cinema and entertainment as Freud’s psychoanalytic theory gained prominence in a major motion picture. (1990). Hollows, J. and M. Jancovich (eds.). Hg. Psychoanalysis is the central issue for many contributors, with essays exploring not only its place in relation to the Gothic Imagination at the heart of horror but also its consequent role in both forming and analysing the horror film. Toward A Psychoanalytic Postmodern Horror Theory. This chapter points out that horror films seem to be built on a set of recurring themes: parents and children, sex and blood, secrets from the past, loss, repetition, trauma, death. Princeton, Princeton University Press. In fact, the feminist-inflected psychoanalytic theories of horror proposed by Williams (1983/1996), Clover (1987; 1992), and Creed (1986; 1993) can all be understood as revisions, rather than outright rejections, of the original Mulveyan paradigm. In reference to horror film, psychoanalysis is as close to essential as any conceptual model can get. The most common route of psychoanalytic inquiry into horror cinema is through considerations of the monster's gender and sexuality. The main figures of this first wave were Christian Metz, Jean-Louis Baudry, and Laura Mulvey. “Psychoanalytic Film Theory.” A Companion to Film Theory. These efforts have typically taken the form of either interpretive analysis (of a particular film, subgenre, or the genre as a whole) or depth-psychological explanation (of the symbolic/mythic import of horror film monsters; of the horror affect and how it is generated; of the possibly perverse pleasures viewers obtain from being frightened by visible fictions). “Introduction.” Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies. Beginning in the early 1980s feminist film theory began to look at film through a more intersectional lens. Similarly, those who see fit to critique psychoanalytic theories of the horror film almost always have an alternative, incompatible (or so it may seem) paradigm in hand, or at least in mind. Instead, it was envisaged that contributors to this book would take a step back to discuss-in some cases, to debate-the relative strengths and weaknesses of such psychoanalytic approaches. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press. THE MYTH OF META-THEORY. Woman as castrator constitutes the most significant face of the monstrous-feminine in film, and Creed challenges the mythical patriarchal view that. It is hoped that the concerted efforts made by each of the contributors to question their methods and motives (past and present), anticipate and respond to objections (actual and possible), and situate their work (historically and across disciplinary lines) will help pave the way for future scholarship on the horror film-of whatever theoretical persuasion-which expresses a commitment to the notions of dialogue, progress, and conceptual openness. Clover, C. (1992). Carroll, N. (1996a). In film theory psychoanalytic approaches became dominant during the 1970s and 1980s, at the heyday of the poststructuralist movement. Most psychoanalytic horror film theorists to date have not proven very open to revising their particular accounts as a result of critical engagement with the work of others operating even from within the psychoanalytic paradigm. The second wave became popular in the 1980s and 90s. “From the Monstrous Mother to the ‘Third Sex’: Female Abjection in the Films of Dario Argento.” Necronomicon: The Journal of Horror and Erotic Cinema, Book Two. After all, it is just those affinities which could presumably be cited as evidence in defense of whichever psychoanalytic theory of the horror film brings them to bear in the first place. If you are an Australian resident, any donations over $2 are tax deductible. April 2013 im Internet Archive) Holger Reichert: Film und Kino. “Feminism, Film Theory, and the Bachelor Machines.” The Future of An Illusion: Film, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 833-44. 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". One need only consider the objections of neo-Lacanians such as Joan Copjec (1995) and Slavoj Zizek (2001) to earlier claims concerning apparatus theory and the suture effect; Constance Penley’s (1989) critique of screen theory (5); Linda Williams on the problematic (because ambiguous) “terms of perversion used to describe the normal pleasures of film viewing” (1984/1999: 706); and the heated mid-’80s debate in Cinema Journal concerning Stella Dallas and the Mulvey-Metz model of female spectatorship. Michelle Carey • Daniel Fairfax • Fiona Villella • César Albarrán-Torres. Nevertheless, when used to shed light on horror cinema, psychoanalysis in its various forms has proven to be a fruitful and provocative interpretative tool. But of course there is no such neutral space outside, much less “above,” the fray from which to conduct an investigation of this sort. 10. Toward a Psychoanalytic Theory of Postmodern Horror Han-yu Huang Tamkang University Abstract This essay looks at “horror” both as a narrative (literary and especially cinematic) genre and as a trans-genre, postmodern social and cultural milieu, one in which horror has become entangled with excessive, pathological fantasy and enjoyment. Schneider, S. Nevertheless, when used to shed light on horror cinema, psychoanalysis in its various forms has proven to be a fruitful and provocative interpretative tool. As Malcolm Turvey details in his contribution to this volume, for instance, a survey of the various explanations offered up by psychoanalytic film theorists concerning the puzzling pleasures of horror film viewing reveals a host of structurally similar but still more or less conflicting positions. (1998). Clover, meanwhile, argues for a primarily masochistic and empathetic, rather than sadistic-voyeuristic, identification on the part of both male and female spectators with the originally suffering but ultimately empowered “Final Girl” of the slasher movie. “Review Article: Andrew Tudor, Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie.” Screen 31.2: 236-42. Namely, attacking what its advocates hold to be the “ethereal speculations” of a “Grand” psychoanalytic film theory which supposedly sees itself as “an indispensible frame of reference for understanding all filmic phenomena” (Bordwell and Carroll 1996: xiii). “When the Woman Looks” (1983). Madison, University of Wisconsin Press: xiii-xvii. New York, Cambridge University Press: 321-35. It also responds to the need for internal debate amongst otherwise (at least potentially) sympathetic psychoanalytic theorists of the horror genre. Dezember 2010 im Internet Archive) bei: Senses of Cinema; Bibliographie des 3rd European Psychoanalytic Film Festivals (Memento vom 17. Bordwell, D. and N. Carroll (eds.). This volume seeks to find the proper place of psychoanalytic thought in critical discussion of cinema in a series of essays that … http://www.theaudiopedia.com What is PSYCHOANALYTIC FILM THEORY? What does PSYCHOANALYTIC FILM THEORY mean? Third, psychoanalytic film theory is a notoriously opaque discourse and often assumes a large amount of prior knowledge on the part of the vexed and taxed reader. Working off-campus? London, B.T. Review of the hardback: 'This superb collection offers its readers a roller-coaster ride through contemporary film theory and the question of horror. Psychoanalysis is the central issue for many contributors, with essays exploring not only its place in relation to the Gothic Imagination at the heart of horror but also its consequent role in both forming and analysing the horror film. Carroll, N. (1996b). Allen, R. (1999). Learn about our remote access options, Author of Un‐American Psycho: Brian De Palma and the Political Invisible. Such a heterogeneity of conceptual and methodological backgrounds strongly suggests that what we have here is more than just a genre-specific case of cognitivist/historicist “Post-Theory” doing its thing. Not essays which simply (or not so simply, as the case may be) make creative use of one or more Freudian, Rankian, Jungian, Kleinian, Jonesian, or Lacanian principles in an effort to shed light on an aspect of the horror film. More like preaching to the converted. It adds strength to the already potent criticisms that psychoanalytic thought is hermetic and self-confirming, that its film theoretical applications produce “closed, self-justifying systems” (Jancovich 1995: 147). Psychoanalytic theory has been the subject of attacks from philosophers, cultural critics and scientists who have questioned the cogency of its reasoning as well as the soundness of its premises.