Technology, Capitalism, and the Female Body in Film. Catherine Williamson Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1996 "Engineered Enjoyment": Technology, Capitalism, and the Female Body in Film. Catherine Williamson Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Williamson, Catherine, ""Engineered Enjoyment": Technology, Capitalism, and the Female Body in Film." (1996). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6289. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6289 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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"ENGINEERED ENJOYMENT”: TECHNOLOGY, CAPITALISM, AND THE FEMALE BODY IN FILM A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Catherine Williamson B.A., Florida State University, 1988 M.A., Florida State University, 1990 August 1996 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9706372 UMI Microform 9706372 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank those who read and commented on this manuscript at all phases of its gestation, especially my major professor, Elsie B. Michie, and the other members of my committee past and present: Pat McGee, Robin Roberts, Emily Toth, James Wandersee, Dana Nelson, Rick Blackwood, and Reggie Young. I'd also like to thank the members of my dissertation reading group, Lisa Walker, Sigrid King, and Janet Wondra. I'd especially like to thank David Mazel, the lone surviving member through 1995-96; his advice and support this last year has been invaluable. Thanks also to my friends and loved ones in Baton Rouge and elsewhere who have suffered through this process with me. And finally, I'd like to thank my family, especially my parents, Bob and Sara Williamson. They have been an inexhaustable supply of support over the years. They also introduced me to my first old movies. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................... ii ABSTRACT ....................................... iv CHAPTER ONE Engineered Enjoyment: An Introduction ....... 1 CHAPTER TWO Pleasure, Breakdown, and the Cinematic System ............................ 33 CHAPTER THREE Medical Discourse and the Psychological Thriller ...................... 70 CHAPTER FOUR Swimming Pools, Movie Stars: The Pleasure Industry of the 1 9 5 0 s ..................................... 110 CHAPTER FIVE Conclusion................................. 158 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................... 168 VITA .......................................... 180 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the link between technology, capitalism, and the female body in 20th century cinema. It argues that commodified pleasure, or "engineered enjoyment," is always produced by establishing technological control over the female body. The scope of this dissertation is limited to films produced during the post-World War II era. In Chapter One I define "engineered enjoyment" and show how film is the prototypical example of such. In Chapter Two I examine how the cinematic apparatus works as a pleasure-producing system and explore what happens when that system breaks down, as in the 1947 film Ladv in the Lake. In Chapter Three I critique post war psychological thrillers which incorporate the idea of the breakdown within their narratives, specifically in the figure of the mentally ill woman as system "out of control." In Chapter Four I address a successful example of the engineering of the female body: the star body of M- G-M actress Esther Williams. Williams's film career was a product of the carefully orchestrated moderation of her physical body. Such controlled moderation allowed her to make the transition from screen star to celebrity spokesperson with amazing success. In Chapter Five I conclude by suggesting new areas for investigating engineered enjoyment in late 20th century culture, particularly the post-1975 "Blockbuster" era. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER ONE "Engineered Enjoyment": An introduction "The organizing principle of the Disney universe is control." Alexander Wilson "Technological Utopias" In March of 1995 I spent a week at Walt Disney World with my sister and her three children. The week was difficult for a variety of reasons, not the least of which because I found the park's obsessive degree of micro management disturbingly Orwellian. Inside the perimeters of Walt Disney World, all grass stays neatly mowed (this in Central Florida where the Kudzu grows a foot a day), all employees remain perky and cute, all lines move slowly but surely, all exhibits deliver the exact same experience at each visit, all foods taste remarkably similar, and all visitors behave in a polite and subdued manner. I felt as if I was in the Biosphere. Later that summer, I broke my pledge never again to visit an amusement park and accompanied my brother and his daughter to the Six Flags Great America park outside of Chicago. Though not as large or as popular as the Disney complexes, nor as well-engineered or thematically coherent, the Six Flags parks are nonetheless made in the same image, including as they do an association with mainstream cinema 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (through the Batman rides) and animated cartoons (the Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes). My brother, niece, and I had a truly miserable time at Six Flags: one hour after we arrived, a tremendous rainstorm soaked us and shut down all the outdoor rides for more than two hours. When the roller coasters opened back up, the lines immediately swelled to a two and a half hour wait. Meanwhile, the drainage systems were having a hard time keeping up with the flooding and no one seemed to be dealing with the very real problem of garbage and sanitation. I was understandably cranky, but to my horror I found my criticisms taking the form of a comparison to Walt Disney World. I missed the control. In fact, it's fair to say that at that moment, I craved it. How did this happen? How did I go from complete skeptic to ardent defender of the Magic Kingdom? How did my experience of displeasure (clearly a function of an insufficient amount of environmental control) at the second theme park help to reinterpret my earlier experience as "pleasure"? And most importantly, how was I "produced" as a consumer of "pleasurable activity"— almost against my will? When the gates of Disneyland first opened in 1955, twentieth century recreation came into its own. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 Disneyland1s debut officially forged the link between the film and amusement park industries, establishing and institutionalizing a "cinematic” sensibility toward amusement and pleasure where representation was privileged over the original and narrative