Abstract

My thesis analyses the representation of female consciousness in a corpus of six films, drawing on the writings of philosopher Luce Irigaray. At the outset, I examine the feminist film theory of Laura Mulvey, Annette Kuhn, Mary Ann Doane and others, and identify a way in which the thought of Irigaray can develop ideas raised by these critics in respect of the representation of women. I then explain the work of Irigaray and distil from across the whole body of her work a set of strategies for the creation of a female symbolic. I use these strategies as a framework within which to analyse three pairs of films: In the Cut (Jane Campion, 2003) and Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971); Lost in Translation (Sophia Coppola, 2003) and The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder, 1955); and Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay, 2002) and Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964).

In respect of each pair of films I examine the representation of female consciousness in the classic film and juxtapose this with the experimental, subversive representations offered by the recent film. I read the films using Irigaray’s suggestions for the creation and preservation of female subjectivity, such as touch and silence, gesture and colour. Finally, I consider the implications of my theoretical and practical approach for filmmaking practice, gender, and genre, in both descriptive and prescriptive terms, and develop a fresh way of approaching the cinema-going experience as a mediated, horizontal relationship rather than the traditional view of it as a hierarchical apparatus. My thesis demonstrates Irigaray’s poetic, philosophical, and spiritual writings as praxis and enables recognition of the work by Campion, Ramsay, and Coppola as rich and subversive.