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Theorising Desire Theorising Desire From Freud to Feminism to Film Kristyn Gorton PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_fm.qxp 1/3/2008 5:28 PM Page i Theorising Desire PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_fm.qxp 1/3/2008 5:28 PM Page ii Also by Kristyn Gorton PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE PORTRAYAL OF DESIRE IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY FICTION: A Feminist Critique PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_fm.qxp 1/3/2008 5:28 PM Page iii Theorising Desire From Freud to Feminism to Film Kristyn Gorton Lecturer, Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_fm.qxp 1/3/2008 5:28 PM Page iv © Kristyn Gorton 2008 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–8960–4 hardback ISBN-10: 1–4039–8960–5 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gorton, Kristyn, 1972– Theorising desire: from Freud to feminism to film / Kristyn Gorton. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 1–4039–8960–5 (alk. paper) 1. Desire in motion pictures. I. Title. PN1995.9.D39G67 2008 792.43’653—dc22 2007048686 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_fm.qxp 1/3/2008 5:28 PM Page v For Paul This page intentionally left blank PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_fm.qxp 1/3/2008 5:28 PM Page vii Contents List of Figures viii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 Theorising Desire 7 2 Hysterical Desire 38 3 Gaze and Melodrama 64 4 Shame and Desire 93 5 Melancholia and Desire 117 Conclusion: Desire and Embodiment 140 Notes 149 Bibliography 158 Filmography 174 Index 175 vii PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_fm.qxp 1/3/2008 5:28 PM Page viii Figures 1.1 Graph 1, from p. 681 of ECRITS: THE COMPLETE EDITION by Jacques Lacan, translated by Bruce Fink. Copyright 1996, 1970, 1971, 1999 by Editions du Seuil, English translation copyright 2006, 2002 by W.W. Norton & Company Inc. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 20 1.2 Graph 3, from p. 690 of ECRITS: THE COMPLETE EDITION by Jacques Lacan, translated by Bruce Fink. Copyright 1996, 1970, 1971, 1999 by Editions du Seuil, English translation copyright 2006, 2002 by W.W. Norton & Company Inc. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 21 viii PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_fm.qxp 1/3/2008 5:28 PM Page ix Acknowledgements This book was written in part due to a grant from HEFCE which not only allowed me time to write sections of the book, but also gave me the opportunity to work with Sara Ahmed, whose work on emotion has influenced my approach to desire. Research for this book devel- oped from work I did for Psychoanalysis and the Portrayal of Desire in Twentieth-Century Fiction: A Feminist Critique (Edwin Mellen, 2007); it is informed also by articles I have had accepted for publication in the journals Feminist Review, Studies in European Cinema and Feminist Theory. My gratitude goes to my former colleagues at Leeds Metropolitan University, in particular: Lance Pettitt, Mary Eagleton, Simon Gunn, Valerie Alia, Melanie Chan, Neil Washbourne, Michael Bailey, Dan Laughey, Dario Llinares, Claire Chambers, Steve Wright, Dave Webb, Pat Cook, Elaine Newsome and Sue Chaplin, who have supported, inspired and nurtured me along the way. Lisa Taylor deserves special mention for not only being a wonderful colleague but also a most treasured friend. Although by the time this book is in print I will have taken up a position in the Department of Theatre, Film & Television at the University of York, I will not forget the pleasure of working with them. I am fortunate to have a large and supportive family who continue to love me from across the Atlantic: Margie and John Wheeler, Meggan and Andrew Watterson, Elizabeth Wheeler, Tracy and Kirk Ritari, Cathy and David Watterson, Jane and Maier Driver, Sally and John Garber, Charles Seelbach, Betty Boyd, Heather Flett and Chad Gibbs— thank you for being the kind of family that is there for every celebra- tion and crisis. My friends and family here and elsewhere are invaluable: Joanne, Connor and Leon Blackledge, Belinda Johns, Jamie Murphy, Catherine Porter, Brigie de Courcy, Kevin McGee, Louisa Tamplin, Esther Wohlgemut, Kamila Shamsie, Krissy and John Ancher, Claire Higson, Allyn Pazienza, Brian McCook and Jenny Wheeldon deserve exceptional recognition, along with Johnny and Matthew Marsden, my gorgeous step-sons, who although relatively uninter- ested in my work, always want their own copies. Many thanks to Zoe Beloff, for inspiring conversations and for making the brilliant film ix PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_fm.qxp 1/3/2008 5:28 PM Page x x Acknowledgements Charming Augustine. Patricia O’Neill deserves special recognition, not only for her careful attention to the manuscript but also for her never-ending friendship. She is the kind of teacher who inspires you to be one. Finally, and as always, I want to thank Paul Blackledge. This book is dedicated to him, for without him this book would have just been a conversation we had in the pub a long time ago. He continues to inspire me to write about desire and emotion—things he always brings out in me. PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_intro.qxp 10/12/2007 07:27 Page 1 Introduction The concept of desire maintains a strong influence on the narratives we read, the stories we hear and the images we see. Desire is a fluid, multiple and dynamic force that is transformative, destructive and life-changing. It is a difficult and perhaps an impossible concept to pin down, explain or ‘solve’. Desire’s abstract nature is part of its power; its elusive quality is what draws us in and invites us to ‘make sense’ of its energy. In this book I examine the concept of desire through its expressions in film, television and popular culture, and attempt to synthesise inter- pretations of desire from psychoanalytic, feminist and film theoretical perspectives, in order to demonstrate how the concept of desire offers us a powerful way of understanding ourselves, the society we live in and the limitations and possibilities we have for self-expression. I suggest that desire is a progressive force that underlines movement—whether of a narrative, a gaze or analysis and that it resists interpretation and any final closure. In her excellent study ‘Metaphors of Desire’ (1997), Alice Deignan traces the various ways in which desire is used as metaphor using the Bank of English, a 211-million word resource which draws on naturally occurring, current English, such as is found in magazines, letters, con- versation and radio journalism. Through this resource, Deignan offers a catalogue of the ways in which desire is used as metaphor—such as ‘desire as an external force’, ‘desire as an awakening’, ‘desire as appetite’ and ‘desire as fire’ (1997, 25–33). Her work outlines the ways in which desire is used to explain life-altering situations and to catalogue its con- sequences and manifestations. As this book will argue, one of the most potent metaphors of desire used within film and television is desire as an awakening, as a force or movement that draws the subject from her position and transforms 1 PPL-UK_TD-Gorton_intro.qxp 10/12/2007 07:27 Page 2 2 Theorising Desire her life. Part of the reason I draw on contemporary examples as illus- trations of how we can theorise desire is because it is possible to cut across genres and expectations and yet still find similar expressions of the concept of desire. We can take examples as disparate as the classic Hollywood film A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), the British television series Blackpool (2004) and the Indian film Fire (1996), for instance, and find very similar references to the way in which desire changes lives. Deepa Mehta’s moving film Fire, for example, is a story of two women who fall in love with each other. Within the film, desire is figured as something transformative and life-changing. The film focuses on the lives of Radha (Shabana Azmi) and Sita (Nandita Das), who live with their husbands and mother-in-law above the restaurant/video store in which they both work.
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