39 research outputs found
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âFeeling poor: Donald Winnicott and Daniel Blakeâ
This article reads between Donald Winnicottâs understanding of human dependence and Ken Loachâs I, DANIEL BLAKE (2015) to open up a new space between âpsychoanalysisâ and âpoliticsâ. Its starting-point is what Stuart Hall has described as the âferocious onslaughtâ on the post-war social-democratic settlement and its initial commitments to the idea of the âfull lifeâ and âsocial security for allâ. Putting dependence at the heart of human experience, Winnicottâs psychoanalysis isespecially attuned to the individual and collective harms imposed by this new âage of austerityâ. âFeeling Poorâ explores the structures of material and psychic dispossession at work in contemporary regimes of austerity â in particular, the neoliberal denial of human dependence and vulnerability. What does the neoliberal world, its reformations of the social state, make of the primal situation of dependence â its terrors and dreads as well as its impulses towards culture and community? How might we reconceive vulnerability in solidarity rather than stigma? What might a psychoanalysis attuned to âdependence as a living factâ contribute to the cultures of protest mobilized through the aesthetics of British social realism? Part of a wider exploration of the question of psychoanalysis and class, this article attempts to think about the symbolic functions of care embedded in the post-war welfare state and engages the potential of Winnicottâs psychoanalysis as a means to social critique
Mirror images: D W Winnicott in the visual field
This chapter explores Winnicott's contribution to our understanding of the image, with particular reference to Gerhard Richter's Mirror. In light of the recent 'turn to Winnicott' in cultural and film studies, it argues for the importance of thinking between Winnicott and Jacques Lacan and for the concept of the mirror as a key starting point for that thinking
âStick that knife in meâ: Shane Meadowsâ children
This article brings Shane Meadowsâ Dead Man's Shoes (2004) into dialogue with the history of the depiction of the child on film. Exploring Meadowsâ work for its complex investment in the figure of the child on screen, it traces the limits of the liberal ideology of the child in his cinema and the structures of feeling mobilised by its usesâââat once aesthetic and sociologicalâââof technologies of vision
âI Love Him in an Absolutely Gay Wayâ Heterodox Fragments of the Erotic Desires, Pleasures, and Masculinity of Male Sports Fans
Film Theory after Copjec
The importation of Lacanian psychoanalysis into film theory in the 1970s and 1980s ushered in a new era of cinema scholarship and criticism. Figures including Raymond Bellour, Laura Mulvey, and Christian Metz are often considered the pioneers of applying Lacanian psychoanalysis in the context of film theory, most notably through their writings in Screen Journal. However, where French and British scholarship on Lacan and film reached its limits, American Lacanianism flourished. When Joan Copjecâs now classic essay âThe Orthopsychic Subject: Film Theory and the Reception of Lacanâ was published in 1989, the trajectory of Lacanian film theory would become radically altered; as Todd McGowan recently put it, the âbutchered operationâ on Lacan committed by Mulvey and (quoting Copjec) the âFoucaultianizationâ of Lacan under the auspices of Screen Journal were finally indicted in one gesture through Copjecâs critique. Copjec and McGowanâs unique American view of Lacan marks a pivotal point in the convergence of psychoanalytic theory and cinema studies; by seeking to wrest Lacan from historist/deconstructionist theories of the subject, and by revisiting Lacan beyond the mirror stage, Copjec and McGowan can be said to have instantiated a resuscitation or even a renaissance of Lacanian theory in film studies in particular and in American scholarship more generally. In this essay, this renaissance of Lacanian theory is examined, focusing on the innovations these two American thinkers brought to psychoanalytic film theory and the multiple paths carved out into other disciplines that followed. First, a detailed summation of the contentions between screen theory and Copjecâs position is introduced, as well as McGowanâs assessment thereof. Then, the trajectory of psychoanalytic film theory after Copjecâs arrival is the focus, including the major innovations in her thought from cinematic subjectivity to sexual difference (most notably from Read My Desire) and the way her position spread to philosophy and ontology. Finally, the article identifies the limitations of Copjecâs and McGowanâs thought and seeks new possibilities through which we may continue to apply psychoanalysis to the cinema in the wake of these two important thinkers.
Lâimportation de la psychanalyse lacanienne dans la thĂ©orie du film au cours des annĂ©es 1970 et 1980 a apportĂ© une nouvelle Ăšre de recherche et de critique cinĂ©matographiques. Des figures comme Raymond Bellour, Laura Mulvey et Christian Metz sont souvent considĂ©rĂ©es comme Ă©tant les pionniers dans lâapplication de la psychanalyse lacanienne au contexte de la thĂ©orie du film, surtout dans leurs Ă©crits pour le Screen Journal. Par contre, lĂ oĂč les recherches françaises et britanniques sur Lacan et la cinĂ©matographie ont atteint leurs limites, le lacanisme amĂ©ricain a prospĂ©rĂ©. La publication en 1989 de « The Orthopsychic Subject: Film Theory and the Reception of Lacan », lâessai classique de Joan Copjec, a complĂštement changĂ© la trajectoire de la thĂ©orie lacanienne du film; comme Todd McGowan lâa rĂ©cemment exprimĂ©, « lâopĂ©ration massacrĂ©e » commise sur Lacan par Mulvey et (citant Copjec) la « Foucaultisation » de Lacan sous les auspices de Screen Journal avaient finalement Ă©tĂ© accusĂ©es dâun seul coup par la critique de Copjec. Le point de vue uniquement amĂ©ricain de Copjec et de McGowan sur Lacan marque un tournant dans la convergence de la thĂ©orie psychanalytique et des Ă©tudes cinĂ©matographiques. En cherchant Ă arracher Lacan des thĂ©ories historicistes/dĂ©constructivistes du sujet, et en revisitant Lacan au-delĂ du stade du miroir, Copjec et McGowan ont instanciĂ© une ressuscitation, voire une renaissance, de la thĂ©orie lacanienne dans les Ă©tudes cinĂ©matographiques en particulier et dans les Ă©tudes amĂ©ricaines en gĂ©nĂ©ral. Dans cet article, cette renaissance de la thĂ©orie lacanienne est examinĂ©e, mettant lâaccent sur les innovations que ces deux penseurs amĂ©ricains ont apportĂ©es Ă la thĂ©orie psychanalytique du film et les multiples chemins tracĂ©s dans dâautres disciplines subsĂ©quentes. PremiĂšrement, un rĂ©sumĂ© dĂ©taillĂ© des diffĂ©rends entre la thĂ©orie du film et la position de Copjec est prĂ©sentĂ©, ainsi que lâĂ©valuation de McGowan Ă ce sujet. Puis, la trajectoire de la thĂ©orie psychanalytique du film aprĂšs lâarrivĂ©e de Copjec est mise de lâavant, notamment les innovations importantes de sa pensĂ©e de la subjectivitĂ© Ă la diffĂ©rence sexuelle (particuliĂšrement dans Read My Desire) et la maniĂšre dont sa position sâest propagĂ©e dans la philosophie et lâontologie. Finalement, lâarticle identifie les limites de la pensĂ©e de Copjec et de McGowan et cherche de nouvelles possibilitĂ©s Ă travers lesquelles nous pourrions continuer dâappliquer la psychanalyse au cinĂ©ma aprĂšs ces deux grands penseurs
Strange contracts: Elfriede Jelinek and Michael Haneke
This essay explores the representation of sexuality and vision in Elfriede Jelinek's Die Klavierspielerin [The Piano Teacher] (1983) and Michael Haneke's La Pianiste (2001). In its focus on the relation between Mother and Erika, Die Klavierspielerin brings right to the fore the grounding of both sexuality and visuality in the ongoing ties between mother and child. Displacing that novel onto the screen, Haneke redoubles its focus on vision. It is in the convergence between the two that we can begin to explore what may be described as the maternal dimension of the various technologies of vision that have come to pervade the everyday experience of lookingâtheir effect on our ways of understanding the relations between visuality and selfhood, visuality and mind
Aphanisis: Patricia Williams and Ernest Jones
This article reads between Patricia Williamsâ The Alchemy of Race and Rights and Ernest Jonesâs ârepressedâ concept of aphanisis, which was first introduced in the 1920s, and is frequently referred to but rarely elaborated in the psychoanalytic literature. Starting from Williamsâ use of psychoanalysis as a means to think the relation between law, hatred, and culture, the article goes back to Jonesâs writings from the 1920s-1940s to track the emergence and vicissitudes of aphanisis as a concept. The concept has the potential to make a unique contribution to the development of psychosocial studies