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Introduction to Film Studies 1: Hollywood Cinema

Introduction to Film Studies 1: Hollywood Cinema. Lecture Four: Spectatorship. Examining Audiences. Context: Poststructuralism (Barthes, Derrida) Key questions: 1. Who watches films – gender, ethnicity, age, class 2. Where are films watched – national or regional contexts

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Introduction to Film Studies 1: Hollywood Cinema

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  1. Introduction to Film Studies 1: Hollywood Cinema Lecture Four: Spectatorship

  2. Examining Audiences • Context: Poststructuralism (Barthes, Derrida) • Key questions: • 1. Who watches films – gender, ethnicity, age, class • 2. Where are films watched – national or regional contexts • 3. What time period are we referring to – historical placement • 4. What does the audience enjoy and why?

  3. Examining Audiences • Two approaches: • 1. Empirical research – any problems with this? • 2. Textual analysis – any problems with this?

  4. Dominant Ideologies • Marxist model – Karl Marx to Louis Althusser • Capitalism • Bourgeoisie and proletariat • Exploitation through the creation of surplus profit • Capitalism will be replaced by socialism

  5. Dominant Ideologies • The feminist model – Kate Millet • Patriarchy • Gender roles and inequality • The Women’s Movement

  6. Films and Dominant Ideology • Christian Metz • Films communicate dominant ideology, whilst giving the appearance of having no overt values • A passive audience become indoctrinated – this achieved by two strategies: • 1. Apparatus theory • 2. Textual system theory • The individual is encouraged/pressured to accept social norms; popular culture helps to achieve this

  7. Feminist Film Theory • Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema” • Psychoanalytical techniques for a political purpose • ‘The male gaze’ • Woman as object of desire • Woman as source of anxiety • Female spectatorship as ‘masochistic’

  8. Alternatives to Mulvey • Mary Ann Doane: role-playing and multiple identification – ‘the masquerade’ • Jackie Stacey: historical context, independent readings made by the audience

  9. Marxist Film Theory • Marcuse: a passive audience ‘brainwashed’ by popular culture • Raymond Williams: audience resistance, popular culture as subversion

  10. Psychoanalytical Approaches • Sigmund Freud • Repression of fears and desires • Subconscious and conscious mind • Id and Ego • Oedipus and Electra • ‘The return of the repressed’ – dreams, Freudian slips, storytelling • Cinema as a projection of desires • Cinema as projection of fears – ‘catharsis’ • Cinema as voyeurism • Is cinema an innocent pleasure?

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