Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist renowned for her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." This influential work, drawing on Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theories, pioneered the intersection of film theory, psychoanalysis, and feminism. Mulvey's analysis explores how the cinematic medium constructs visual pleasure and narrative structures, often revealing their entanglement with patriarchal systems. Her theoretical framework fundamentally shifted film criticism and media studies, particularly through a feminist lens.
A new edition of Laura Mulvey's groundbreaking collection of essays, originally published in 1989. In an extensive introduction to this second edition, Mulvey looks back at the historical and personal contexts for her famous article Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema , and reassesses her theories in the light of new technologies.
Addresses some of the key questions of film theory, spectatorship and narrative. This title proposes that with the arrival of new technologies and new ways of experiencing the cinematic image, film's hidden stillness comes to the fore, thereby acquiring a new accessibility and visibility.
The collection features recent writings that delve into diverse topics, including analyses of films like Xala, Citizen Kane, and Blue Velvet. It also includes an in-depth exploration of the works of American Indian artist Jimmie Durham and feminist photographer Cindy Sherman, showcasing the author's critical engagement with various cultural and artistic expressions.
Laura Mulvey offers a fresh and original reading of one of the greatest films in all cinema. This new edition of Mulvey's study is published in the Film Classics 20th anniversary series of special editions, with a new foreword by the author, and a stunning new jacket design by Eric Skillman.
A return by essential film critic Laura Mulvey to questions of film theory and feminism.