Cinema of Exposure : Female Suffering and Spectatorship Ethics
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CINEMA OF EXPOSURE: FEMALE SUFFERING AND SPECTATORSHIP ETHICS Kathleen Scott A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2014 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6312 This item is protected by original copyright Cinema of Exposure: Female Suffering and Spectatorship Ethics Kathleen Scott This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews August 13, 2014 1 Abstract This thesis explores the intersection of phenomenological, bio-political and ethical facets of spectatorship in relation to female suffering and gendered violence in contemporary film produced in Europe (mainly drawing on examples from France) and the United States. I argue that the visceral and affective cinematic embodiment of female pain plays a vital role in determining the political and ethical relationships of spectators to the images onscreen. Drawing on phenomenological theory, feminist ontology and ethics (primarily the work of Hélène Cixous), as well as the ethical philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Luc Nancy, I establish the bio-political and ethical positions and responsibilities of spectators who encounter female suffering in film. In doing so, I highlight the ways in which adopting a phenomenological approach to theorizing and practicing spectatorial perception can open up new areas of ethical engagement with (and fields of vision within) controversial modes of filmmaking such as European New Extremism and body horror. I analyze how suffering female bodies embody contemporary corporeal, socio-political and ethical problematics in what I define as the “cinema of exposure.” I argue that through processes of psychosomatic disturbance, films within the cinema of exposure encourage spectators to employ a haptic, corporeally situated vision when watching women experience pain and trauma onscreen. I explore how encounters with these suffering female bodies impact spectators as political and ethical subjects, contributing a crucial bio-political dimension to existing work on spectatorial engagement with cinematic affect. The goal of this thesis is to highlight the continued importance of feminist critiques of gendered and sexualized violence in film by attending to the emotional, physical, political and ethical resonances of mediated female suffering. This thesis contributes productively to those areas of film and media studies, women’s studies and feminist philosophy that explore the construction of female subjectivity within contemporary culture. 2 1. Candidate’s declarations: I, Kathleen Scott hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 78,200 words in length, has been written by me, and that it is the record of work carried out by me, or principally by myself in collaboration with others as acknowledged, and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September 2010 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in Film Studies in November 2014; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2010 and 2014. Date 13 August 2014 signature of candidate ……… 2. Supervisor’s declaration: I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in Film Studies in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date 13 August 2014 signature of supervisor ……… 3. Permission for publication: (to be signed by both candidate and supervisor) In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the publication of this thesis: PRINTED & ELECTRONIC COPY Embargo on both all of print and electronic copy for a period of 5 years on the following ground(s): Publication would be commercially damaging to the researcher, or to the supervisor, or the University; Publication would preclude future publication. Supporting statement for printed and electronic embargo request: The printed and/or electronic publication of this thesis would be commercially damaging to the researcher, as it would preclude the planned future publication (within 5 years) of this thesis in monograph form. Date 13 August 2014 signature of candidate …… signature of supervisor ……… Please note initial embargos can be requested for a maximum of five years. An embargo on a thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science or Medicine is rarely granted for more than two years in the first instance, without good justification. The Library will not lift an embargo before confirming with the student and supervisor that they do not intend to request a continuation. In the absence of an agreed response from both student and supervisor, the Head of School will be consulted. Please note that the total period of an embargo, including any continuation, is not expected to exceed ten years. Where part of a thesis is to be embargoed, please specify the part and the reason. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those at the Department of Film Studies at the University of St Andrews for their support. Thank you to faculty members Robert Burgoyne, Leshu Torchin, Tom Rice, Joshua Yumibe, Dina Iordinova, Brian Jacobson, Elisabetta Girelli, Lucy Fife Donaldson and Stefanie Van De Peer. Special thanks to Dennis Hanlon for convening my Viva and assisting in the submission process. Thank you to Karen Drysdale for all of her valuable administrative help for the past four years. I would also like to thank the members of my cohort, as well as other PhD students with whom I shared my time at St Andrews: Pasquale Cicchetti, Chelsea Wessels, Beatriz Tadeo Fuica, Raluca Iacob, Matthew Holtmeier, Fredrik Gustaffsson, Diana Popa and Sarah Soliman. A special thank you to my supervisor David Martin-Jones for his tremendous guidance and support, and for braving nightmares and insomnia for four years in order to watch the films analyzed in my thesis. Thank you to my external examinars, Martine Beugnet and Sarah Cooper, for their insightful and encouraging feedback. Thank you as well to other scholars who took an interest in my work: Robert Sinnerbrink, Catherine Wheatley, Tarja Laine, William Brown and Libby Saxton. Thank you to the Wellesley College Fellowship Committee for supporting this project in its final stages. Thank you to my family and friends for their love and support, at home and abroad: Joyce, Mike and Shyra Scott; Elisabeth, Christer and Anton Jannesson; Emily Lauren Kim; Nora Keller; Arleta Majoch; Bethany Lerch; Mary Lee Brown; Lily Ferris; Charles Schafaieh; Christophe Verboomen; Surina Diddi; and Julia Wu. Special thanks to Rachel Lewis. For their generosity and faith, all my love and gratitude to Katherine and Jeffrey Barnett, the finest hosts any penniless graduate student could ask for. Lastly and most importantly, much love to my parents and Sarah Paige for making my education possible. Thank you. 4 Table of Contents Introduction Cinema of Exposure: Ethical Spectatorship and the Bio-politics of Female Suffering…………………………..6 Chapter 1 Blindness, Hysteria and Becoming-woman: A Feminist Ethics of Embodied Spectatorship……………………………………………64 Chapter 2 Spectatorship Ethics and the Suffering “Pregnant Parisian Woman”………………...127 Chapter 3 Female Skin Mutilation and a Feminist Cine-ethics of Proximity……………………..184 Chapter 4 Hors la loi: Visioning-in-the-feminine and Minor Female Filmmaking…………………………….239 Conclusion Future Directions of the Cinema of Exposure…………………………………………..292 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….300 Filmography……………………………………………………………………………….320 5 Introduction Cinema of Exposure: Ethical Spectatorship and the Bio-politics of Female Suffering Pain is within reach. If I stretch out my arm I touch you, and that is intimacy. I can count the eyelashes of this suffering. I would be able to taste the tears. Never before has a face turned to mine in that way. Ever closer it presses against me, and I follow it face to face. It’s not even true that there is air between us; I consume it. It is in me like a sacrament. Maximum visual acuity. Jean Epstein 1993, 239 For photographs to accuse, and possibly to alter conduct, they must shock. Susan Sontag 2003, 81 Introduction This thesis explores the intersection of phenomenological, bio-political and ethical facets of spectatorship in relation to female suffering and gendered violence in contemporary film produced in Europe (mainly drawing on examples from France) and the United States. I argue that the visceral and affective cinematic embodiment of female pain plays a vital role in determining the political and ethical relationships of spectators to the images onscreen. Drawing on phenomenological theory, feminist ontology and ethics (primarily the work of Hélène Cixous), as well as the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Luc Nancy, I establish the bio-political and ethical positions and responsibilities of spectators who encounter female suffering in film.