Examining the Dialogic Construction of Women In
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“TAKE HER CLOTHES OFF AND BRING HER TO ME!”: EXAMINING THE DIALOGIC CONSTRUCTION OF WOMEN IN ROBERT ALTMAN’S FILMS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, SPEECH, AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES BY CHARLENE SMITH GREEN B.A., M.A. DENTON, TEXAS DECEMBER 2017 Copyright © 2017 by Charlene Smith Green DEDICATION For my daughters, Christianne and Natalie Build your castles in the air, and then put foundations under them. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express deep and sincere gratitude to my advisor and director Dr. Lou Thompson for her support and encouragement throughout my academic journey, which began so many years ago. I am especially grateful for her thoughtful insight and tireless dedication to my research and writing about films, most especially her guidance with this project on the women in Robert Altman’s films. I would have never completed this project without her unwavering commitment to my research and writing. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Genevieve West and Dr. Brian Fehler for providing invaluable comments and feedback on my work. I am especially grateful for the tough questions they asked because those questions made me dig deeper and think harder when I made revisions. Their comments and questions have also led me toward ideas for future research and writing, and that is a priceless contribution indeed. Finally, there are two additional professors I would like to thank for their contributions to my research, writing, and academic growth. The first is Dr. Russel Greer, who introduced me to Mikhail Bakhtin and his theories about language and discourse and helped me discover the value of those theories for the study of rhetorical artifacts. The second is Dr. Hugh Burns, with whom I first studied in the 1990s as an undergraduate. Dr. Burns also taught the first class I took in graduate school, research, and bibliography methods, in the summer of 2003, and it was in that first graduate course that Dr. Burns gave me the most valuable advice I have ever received about writing. I had been researching women pirates in the Caribbean during the eighteenth century, and my iii research was so successful that I had become overwhelmed with the amount of material I had discovered. Not knowing what to write or even where to begin, I asked Dr. Burns for advice. I will never forget his response, which was succinct, simple, and very practical: “Just write sentences.” And it is that advice from Dr. Burns that I followed when I would begin to feel overwhelmed with the scope of this project. I just wrote sentences; and, eventually, I had a complete manuscript. iv ABSTRACT CHARLENE SMITH GREEN “TAKE HER CLOTHES OFF AND BRING HER TO ME!:” EXAMINING THE DIALOGIC CONSTRUCTION OF WOMEN IN ROBERT ALTMAN’S FILMS DECEMBER 2017 This research examines the women characters in Robert Altman’s feature films from 1967 through 2006. Considered one of the most influential American filmmakers of the late twentieth century, Altman’s career spans six decades and comprises thirty-six feature films. Critical scholarship about Altman’s films has generally focused on genre convention and corruptions; his use of large, ensemble casts and intertwining stories; his use of overlapping dialogue and multi-layered soundtracks; and, his recreation of a distinctly Altmanesque American cultural landscape. While some criticism has been devoted to the study of a few major female characters in Altman’s films, no comprehensive study of the Altman women characters exists. Moreover, much of the critical attention given to Altman’s female characters has been negative, such as that aimed at “Hot Lips” O’Houlihan in M*A*S*H. The film’s characterization and treatment of the character, as well as other women characters in that film, were widely criticized. Rather than focusing on a single character or film, however, this research examines Altman’s films as a unified body of work that share overarching themes about women in American culture. v Moreover, the women characters in these films are examined through multiple critical lenses and theoretical frameworks, and are further contextualized against the cultural and social attitudes during the periods in which the films were created. Critical theories used in this study include Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogism, reaccentuation, and heteroglossia; feminist film and literary theory; and, general film theory when necessary to examine the rhetorical effects of technology and the technological choices and practices of Altman in his filmmaking. The study is divided into three primary parts corresponding to specific periods and shifts in feminist thought. This study is relevant because it contributes to our understanding of Altman’s work as an American filmmaker and to our understanding of the roles played by film and visual literacy in our society’s construction of meaning. Moreover, by studying Altman’s films and the construction of female characters in his work, we can better grasp the dialogic relationship that exists between American audiences and the art – verbal and visual – the audiences help to create. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. vii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ x Chapter I. ROBERT ALTMAN & THE WOMEN: MISOGYNIST OR MENTOR? ..................... 1 Robert Altman: A Distinctly “American” Filmmaker ............................................ 4 Making Meaning: Dialogism and Cognitive Theory .............................................. 6 Altman’s Films and Their Social Contexts ............................................................. 9 What Have Critics Said about Altman’s Films? ....................................... 12 Altman’s Career ........................................................................................ 15 Altman and the Women: Characters, Actors, and Audiences ................... 18 Altman’s Films and Evolving Feminist Theory........................................ 20 Altman’s Women, Critical Theory, and Some Conclusions ..................... 26 II. ROBERT ALTMAN & THE CRITICS: ALTERNATIVE CINEMA AUTEUR ........ 29 What about the Women? ....................................................................................... 32 Most Recent Critical Works .................................................................................. 34 General Film Studies Sources ................................................................... 37 Period-Specific Film Studies Sources ....................................................... 43 Theme-Based Film Studies Sources ......................................................... 48 “New Cinema Films” Studies Sources ..................................................... 50 Critical Collections on Altman’s Work .................................................... 52 Peer-Reviewed Journal Sources ................................................................ 59 Documentary Films and Other Non-Print Sources ................................... 64 Conclusions ........................................................................................................... 66 III. ROBERT ALTMAN & THE AUDIENCE: A DIALOGIC RELATIONSHIP ........ 68 The Concept of Audience and the Early Sophists ................................................ 70 Mikhail Bakhtin .................................................................................................... 74 Dialogism .................................................................................................. 76 Polyphony ................................................................................................. 77 Heteroglossia............................................................................................. 78 Canonization and Reaccentuation ............................................................. 79 Feminist Theory and Bakhtin .................................................................... 80 Feminist Film Studies and Robert Altman ............................................................ 82 vii IV. “THE SULTRY BITCH WITH THE FIRE IN HER EYES:” EXAMINING THE WOMEN IN ALTMAN’S FILMS – THE ’60s & ’70s .................................................... 85 The 1960s and 1970s ............................................................................................ 89 Agency and Sexuality: A Woman’s Perspective .................................................. 95 Pro-Sex Feminist Thought, Prostitution, and Altman’s 70s Films ..................... 113 Altman’s Women Survive................................................................................... 120 V. “THERE IS SOMETHING SO DISTINCTLY FAMILIAR ABOUT YOU:” EXAMINING THE WOMEN IN ROBERT ALTMAN’S FILMS – THE ’80s ...........