Traversing the fantasy : the dialectic of desire--fantasy and the ethics of narrative cinema

Traversing the Fantasy proposes a new and comprehensive model of spectatorship at the heart of which it draws an analogy between the ethics of Lacanian psychoanalysis and the ethics of narrative film. It demonstrates how spectators engage with narrative film, undergoing unconscious processes that generate a shift in the adherence to fantasies that impede assuming responsibility for one’s fate and well being, as well as fantasies that cover over historical and social atrocities or injustices. The authors discuss the affinities that the ontology and aesthetics of narrative film share with subjective, unconscious processes, offering new insights into the popular appeal of narrative film, through three film corpora, analyzed at length: body-character-breach films; gender-crossing films; and dreaming-character films. With a range of case studies from the old (North by Northwest, Some Like it Hot, Victor Victoria) to the new (Shutter Island, Her, Dallas Buyers Club), Sandra Meiri and Odeya Kohen Raz build on current psychoanalytic ideas about the cinema and take them in a completely new direction that promises to be the basis for further developments in the field. Title page Copyright page CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Introduction Desire/Fantasy Desire/Fantasy and the Ontology of Film: The Engagement of Spectators, the Primal Scene, and the Actor-Character Subjectivization and Ethics: Three Cinematic Corpora within a Tripartite Model The Book Chapters The Book’s Contribution to Psychoanalytic Film Theories Part one: Body-Character-Breach Films Chapter 1: Desire, Fantasy, and the Ontology of Film Desire/Fantasy, the Ontology of Film, Characters, Actors, and Spectators Bodiless Characters The Real Body, the Paradox of the Close-Up (the Face), Characters and Actors Chapter 2: Traversing the Fantasy Casting, the Return of the Repressed and the Real of the Body Narrative Cinema, Subjectivity, and Subjectivization Part Two: Dreaming-Character Films Chapter 3: Dreams in Films and Implicit Reflexivity Dreams and Guilt Spellbound Dreaming and Guilt in Spellbound The Dream and Implicit Reflexivity in Spellbound: Subjectivization of the Apparatus The Conversation Dreaming and Guilt in The Conversation The Dream and Implicit Reflexivity in The Conversation: The Ethics of the Apparatus Chapter 4: Cinematography, Subjectivity, and Guilt The Cinematographic Image Dreaming and Guilt in 81⁄2 Guilt and Cinema: The Textual Mise-en-Abyme in 81⁄2 Dreaming and Guilt in Lynch’s Mulholland Drive Guilt and Cinema: The Textual Mise-en-Abyme in Mulholland Drive Part Three: Gender-Crossing Films Chapter 5: This Gender That Is Mine Disconcerting Bodies and “Feminine Enjoyment” “The Semiotic” Blended Voices: Yentl “It Ain’t All She Ain’t!”: Against Fetishism (Calamity Jane) “Nobody’s Perfect!”: From the Phallic Space to the Feminine One (Some Like It Hot and Victor Victoria) Chapter 6: From “Inherent Transgression” to the Body as “Semiotic Chōra” The Trans Body and Desire: Between Blocking and Creating a Semiotic Space “They Say I’m the Best Boyfriend They Ever Had”: Boys Don’t Cry “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger”: The Polymorphous Body of Una mujer fantástica The Semiotic Chōra: Being or Using John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich Being John Malkovich: A Meta-Film APPENDIX NOTES Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Appendix REFERENCES INDEX Traversing the Fantasy: The Dialectic of Desire/Fantasy proposes a new and comprehensive model of spectatorship at the heart of which it draws an analogy between the ethics of Lacanian psychoanalysis and the ethics of narrative film. It demonstrates how spectators engage with narrative film, undergoing unconscious processes that generate a shift in the adherence to fantasies that impede assuming responsibility for one's fate and well being. The authors discuss the affinities that the ontology and aesthetics of narrative film share with subjective, unconscious processes, offering new insights into the popular appeal of narrative film, through three film corpora, analyzed at length: body-character-breach films; dreaming-character films; and gender-crossing films. With a range of case studies from the old (Rebecca, Vertigo, Some Like it Hot) to the new (Being John Malkovich, A Fantastic Woman), Sandra Meiri and Odeya Kohen Raz build on psychoanalytic ideas about the cinema and take them in a completely new direction that promises to be the basis for further developments in the field. "Offers a refreshing take on the relevance of psychoanalytic theory for the analysis of films and cinema"-- Provided by publisher