Monstrous-Feminine

CEU eTD Collection In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in ofMaster ofArts the degree for oftherequirements In partialfulfillment IN CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOHORROR IN CONTEMPORARY REVISING “MONSTROUS-FEMININE”: REVISING MADNESS, SEXUALITY, PERVERSION SEXUALITY, MADNESS, Supervisor: Professor Supervisor: Department ofGenderStudies Central European University Central Kateryna Burkush Kateryna Budapest, Hungary Gender Studies Submitted to 2012 by Erzsébet Barát CEU eTD Collection anti-feminine in termsof its narrative alignment with excessive (perverse) sexuality and identity crisis. Antichrist engagement into sphere of artistry ( fear of ‘maternal authority’ ( repression. ways The of ‘monstrification’ of female sexuality overlap through films along the lines of represented in films asperverse and dangeroussocial for order therefore and subjected furtherto sexuality, un-reproductive uncontrolled is monstrosity of their root the and characters of these ‘abjection’ the ‘final girl’ I identified a conservative ‘backlash’ in the genre of horror. I argued that the main site of female castrating monsters such as Ripley in the of figures ‘empowered’ the to films of these characters main the compared Having of psychohorror. Black Swan In my thesis I explored various forms of female filmic monstrosity in monstrosity filmic female of forms various explored I my thesis In Abstract ) that forms the binary of production/reproduction in which (creative) production is connoted as connoted is production (creative) which in ofproduction/reproduction binary the forms ) that (2010),and the Antichrist The Piano Teacher The Piano Teacher (2009) arguing that they belong the hybridto ‘post-modern’ genre Alien ii and the and (1979) and Carrie in and the and Black Swan Black Swan The Piano Teacher Carrie ), madness,), and heroines’ ) or academic research (the (1976) and a trope of (2001), the CEU eTD Collection ilorpy...... 56 Bibliography ...... 53 6. Conclusion 5. Mad embodiment and monstrosity of difference in monster in4. Masochistand authority' 'maternal in the bond female pathological the and authority’ ‘Maternal 3. 2. Ambiguity of Horror: Scared and/or Pleased?...... 6 1. Introduction: Psychohorror as a hybrid genre ...... 1 and its discontents ii Abstract...... Table of Contents 5.2. Antichrist ...... 48 as symptom 4.5. Creativity/insanity relationship ...... 37 in The Piano Teacher 4.3. The reverse of bourgeois ...... 34 ‘normality’ 4.2. Maternal authority and the origins masochistof monstrosity...... 27 4.1. Monstrosity as ‘social sickness’ in The ...... 26 Piano Teacher 3.3. Female interrelations of monstrosity in ...... 22 the Black Swan 3.2. Psychoanalytic explanation of gender difference...... 19 3.1. ‘Ejecting the abject’: castrated and castrating monsters in ...... 15 the horror genre 2.3. Defining ‘Monstrous-Feminine’: What is Scary About aWoman?...... 10 2.2. Psychoanalysis and Pleasures of Horror...... 8 2.1. Cognitivist Approach ...... 6 to Pleasure of Horror 5.1. Woman and Madness in Antichrist...... 40 iii The PianoTeacher The Antichrist Black Swan (2009)...... 39 ...... 26 ...... 15 CEU eTD Collection (2000)) tackled the genre from the perspective of gender difference and particularities of representation repressions.” to horror cinema …because it reveals sores, cultural symptoms ofour guiltiest pleasures andincomplete the hold horrors have on public imagination. Linda Williams observed “[f]ilmthat academics have turned address and films horror in the functioning their and disgust horror, freight, of phenomena the of meaning growing academic interest to mass culture itself made scholars to turn their attention to the cultural therefore accessible and ‘cheap’. Nevertheless, the popularity of the genre among the audience and entertainment, a‘primitive’ mass product directed to invocation of ‘instinctual’ response in viewer and not see culturalit asa product deserving for close scrutiny, considering such moviesmere as Horror genre for a long time occupied the lowest stages of cinematic hierarchy. Film academics did feminism> [Accessed: 25May 2012] Guardian. Monthly Review Press, p. 222. 3 Society forEducation in Film and Television, p. 28. 2 1 Brooks,Xan. 2009.“Antichrist: A Work of Genius or the Sickest Film in the History of Cinema?” Johnston,“Women’s Claire. 1973. CinemaCounter-Cinema.” as In Althusser, Louis. 1971. 1. Introduction: Psychohorror asa hybrid genre and its [online] Availiable at: Barbara Creed (1993), Cynthia A. Freeland Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, discontents as art, and to which it alludes. which it is born, in which it bathes, from which it detaches itself also an ideological product—the product of bourgeois ideology. of bourgeois product product—the ideological an also existing system of economic relations, in the final analysis. Film is of ‘seeing,’ ‘perceiving,’ 1 All films and all works of art are products: products of an What art makes us makes art What translated by Ben Brewster, New York: Notes Women’son Cinema and see , and therefore give us in the forms ‘feeling’ … is the ideology from ideology the …is Louis Althusser Claire Johnston . London: The 1 2 CEU eTD Collection that threatens symbolic order. excess of sexual atrope and monster of figure the through performed and constructed is creativity female imagery cinematic Western in contemporary that argue I will my analysis of basis the On abnormality. into sliding without creativity embrace to woman a of incapability signaling perversion, sexual for trigger distorted and dangerous,abnormality (repressed sexuality,mental illness, masochism), is represented in the films asinherently monstrous of signs with attributed literallysubjectivity, artistic Female academic. an is she – profession 'creative' 'unbearable'sexually pervert, and potentially self-distructive. The main heroinefor of the a woman. A strive for artistic perfection becomes a symbolic by abjectifying her through uncontrolled sexuality and ‘madness’. ‘psychohorror,’ and legitimacy.” and values cultural regarding of contestations series ongoing “an rather but conventions, of cinematic amount sexuality. Thus, I approach genre as not atemplate of textual patterns, classificatory category with a fixed the main heroines of these films as‘monstrous by nature’, where ‘nature’ is with aligned their gender and positions I argue, which, violence, abnormal with representation) fantastic horrors for likely more with The generic hybridity of these films allows combining the ‘realistic’, narrative representation (in contrast films slasher of the conventions employ that horrors Black Swan victim/monster and the kindsof gender differentiated pleasure derived from the genre. opposition the saturating relations of power forms various the show to horrors in of feminine/masculine The Piano Teacher film/0213,hoberman,33363,20.html> [Accessed 17May 2012] In my thesis I will argue that the films antichrist/news/1833302/rt_interview_lars_von_trier_on_antichrist/> [Accessed 24 May 2012] Availiable at: Slasher film is a type of horror film showing violence in an explicitly graphic manner oftenwith using of onvonTrier Jonathan.Interview:Lars 2009.“RT Crocker, (2010)by Darren Aronofsky and the 7 emerging on the verge of drama and slasher film, displaces a female subject from 5 As a grid of cultural meanings, a hybrid genre of a ‘cerebral horror’ ‘cerebral a of genre hybrid a meanings, cultural of grid a As and the and Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, Black Swan Village Voice construct the female artistic subject asemotionally unstable, The Piano Teacher Antichrist 2 4 to construct acertain type of monstrous femininity. . [online] Availiable at: male gaze’ as guarantee of symbolic order and censors unreproductive female sexuality as ‘perverse’ or ‘perverse’ as sexuality female unreproductive censors and order of symbolic guarantee as gaze’ ‘male ‘backlash’ in representation(1978), of a womanClover (1987)in relation horrorto the films in the genre, a ‘regressive’‘final girl’ (a girl who shiftconfronts Swan thethat killer, invites survives and thebecomes return monsters‘her own hero’),whichof the‘return discussed the gaze’,by Carol castrate.possess For Creed RipleyJ. in active desire. I will compareof her the sexual main differencecharacters ofand thebeing Cinema a ‘sign’ of castration, but actuallypleasure, explored by Laura Mulvey (1975) in her pioneering essay because she herself has a powersuch as vampires,obsessed. witches, They subvert logicpatriarchal to of voyeuristic and sadistic ‘male’ monsters, female some in potential transgressive finds Creed that is now underline to important is What her appropriation of Kristeva’s notion of abject forexplaining the pleasure of in horrors, the Chapter 2. construction. film horror female desire or feminine subjectivity.” horrors, comparing two fundamental approaches – cognitivist and psychoanalytic, and more explicitly more and psychoanalytic, and cognitivist – approaches fundamental two comparing horrors, my analysis. of scope the beyond is spectatorship reveal themeanings thatwere derived from the films by the audience. studying the reviews. The reviews of critics will helpto identify the general reaction to the films and (Creed 1993, Luce Irigaray 1985, Jaqueline Rose 2005). I will also discuss the reception of the films by theory psychoanalytic feminist on mostly relying films of the analysis asemantic do Iwill narrative excess. bodily and violence of tropes ‘slasher’ through ‘abject’ I will in detail examine Creed’s concepts of ‘monstrous-feminine’ and ‘maternal authority’, as well as 10 The thesis consists of four main chapters. In the Chapter 2 I discuss the specificities of the pleasure of (gendered) of the investigation the interpretation, semantic to restricted is research the as As long To explore how the ‘psychohorror’ monster isconstructed and which function it fulfills in the Ibid., p. 7 , The Piano Teacher , performing female as a Friday the 13th , and the (1980), Alien femme castrice femme (1979) and Carrie in Antichrist A Nightmare on Elm Street 10 Thus, Creed traces the impact of patriarchal ideology in the to the figure of female castrating monster and the trope of a , a castrating monster, frightening not because of the fact The TexasChain Saw Massacre 4 Carrie (1976) are examples of female castrating (1984), to identify conservativethe Visual Pleasure and Narrative (1974), Halloween Black CEU eTD Collection monstrosity in a ‘post-modern’ psychohorror. ‘post-modern’ a in monstrosity Swan, analysis of the film where I explore the ways of construction of the monstrous-feminine in the Black draw the methodological framework of my topic. Each of the Chapters 3 – 5 are dedicated to the separate The Piano Teacher , and the Antichrist and identify the cultural meaning of female filmic 5 CEU eTD Collection from ‘co-existence’ with negative emotions represented in film: audience “seek[s] horror fiction (2000), and Danial Shaw (2001). ForCarroll, audience’s pleasure from watching ishorrors derived works of Noel Carroll (1990) and more by recent surveys Torben Grodal (1999), Cynthia Freeland examine Creed’sBarbara concept of ‘abjection’ aligned with femininity. then and horror, of pleasure the to approaches psychoanalytical and cognitivist discuss first will viewer? The answer to these questions will lay the ground for my further interpretationacquires while watching the horror film and in which ideological structuresof does the the film engage its films. I for the viewer? What kind pleasurable be images of horrifying and pleasureunpleasant disturbing, contains do that film the the Can ask: to horror entitled films offer? What we are genre, the of kind popularity high of account disposition into Taking dissolution. of their arena the theinto turns viewer social (pathological) fantasy, becomes acultural milieurevels that (repressed) of society fears and Genre of horror, perceived not just as a mass entertainment, but taken seriously and interpreted as interpreted and seriously taken but entertainment, mass a as just not perceived horror, of Genre Difference) in the example, for elaborated, was pleasures its and genre horror to approach cognitivist The to PleasureofHorror Cognitivist Approach 2.1. 11 Grosz,Elisabeth.1994. . Indiana University Press, p. 203. 2. Ambiguity of Horror: Scared and/or Pleased? Volatile Bodies: Toward aCorporeal Feminism (Theories of Representation and form, a disorder that threatens all order? like a leaking ship, but aformlessness that engulfs all but self-containment secreting; as lacking not so much orsimply the phallus seeping liquid; as formless flow; asviscosity, entrapping, but with more complexity, as a leaking, uncontrollable, or absence lack a as only not constructed been has body 6 Can it be that in the West, in our time, the female —not a cracked or porous vessel, or porous a cracked —not Elisabeth Grosz 11 CEU eTD Collection informed by the category of power/control. of category the by informed power. (directorial) masculine meta-narrative fiction, and similarly the gender ideologies of narrative triumphant femininity are undermined by and artifact and as enjoyed morally is film horror the that concludes She director. and monster male victorious” emerges woman between the gendering of power onnarrative level where “a strong, virtuous, rather pure young confrontation with evil.” of spectacles effects special its and of evil representation art-horror’s on focus feminist a with monsters horror’s on emphasis Carroll’s displaces approach “Freeland’s that argues Hills Matt body). human ‘possessed’ in monstrosity locates and vampire/zombie/alien as ‘monster’ actual representing avoids (that horror’ ‘uncanny and film) the of narrative in the effects visual special emphasize itself. the horror films on the meta-emotional cognitive level, leaving out the specificity of horror pleasure movement intrigue the mind in ways analogous to genuine one.” simplistic) proofs, hypotheses, counterfeits ofreasoning, causal and explanations whose details and (admittedly of imitations by enhanced of revelation, process acontinuous “through satisfaction audience’s curiosity about ‘knowing’ themonster isof acognitive nature. The viewer finds from “the experience of seeing, and coping with seeing, something repugnant.” something seeing, with coping and ofseeing, experience “the from the frightof theimage. Similarly, Yvonne Leffler pointsout that pleasure from horrorthe film stems disclosure of the plot and the monstrous representation itself, as well as viewer’s ability to withstand simply to be horrified” In her book 17 Westview, p.267. 16 15 14 13 12 Hills, Matt. 2005. Freeland, Cynthia. 2000. Ibid., 22. Hills, Matt. 2005. Leffler,Yvonne. 2000. Carrol, Noel. 1990. The Nakedand the Undead The Pleasure ofHorror, ThePleasure The Pleasure ofHorror, ThePleasure The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart, 15 12 In her feminist reading of horrors Freeland pays attention to differences to attention pays Freeland horrors of reading feminist her In Horror as Pleasure: The Aesthetics of Horror Fiction, Horror of TheAesthetics Horror as Pleasure: . ‘Co-existential’ pleasure isalso linked to the fascination about the TheNaked and Undead:the Evil and theAppealofHorror 16 and a metalevel of the film where she finds the linkage between the (1999) Cynthia Freeland explores ‘graphic horror’ (which London: Continuum, p. 23. London: Continuum, p. 19. 17 moralis ‘gendered ambivalence’of pleasureThe 7 14 Thus, Carroll poses pleasure from London: Routledge Almqvist & Wiksell, 57. 13 , Boulder, CO: Carroll argues that argues Carroll , p. 193. p. CEU eTD Collection to what is frightening – to what arouses dread and horror … we may expect that a special core of core a special that expect may …we horror and dread arouses what to – frightening is what to Barbara Creed (1993). Freud discusses having found the elaboration in the scholarships of Robin Wood (1986), Carol J. Cover (1992),and horror, to approach of psychoanalytic development later inspired 1919) in (written Uncanny” “The “Freud … constitutes thelingua franca of horror …criticism” horror are grounded in concepts from Freudian theory.” of appeal the of accounts common most the far “by Tudor, Andrew to According genre. horror to itself.” theory of psychoanalytic validation of transhistorical, psychical processes (e.g. ‘the unconscious’, ‘the complex’),Oedipal and the thus a “sign as value cultural horrors’ underlined often psychoanalysis although horror, of contradictions emotions like disgust, fright, and cognitive reflection on evil. anxiety, on the concepts of‘unconscious’, ‘repression’, and ‘abjection’. emotions, but also objectless states of anxiety. underexplore the specificity of horror pleasure itself, sinceit is provoked not only by object-directed 22 StevenJay Schneider. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.28-9. Approaches to ModernHorror Cinema.” In 21 Film, attention their turned who critics film among support vast found theory psychoanalytic Freudian 24 11, No 3, p. 446. 23 20 19 18 audience ‘object-directed’ specific itto limiting for horror to approach cognitive criticizes Hill On the other hand, horror genre got subjected to various psychoanalytic interpretations that rely that interpretations psychoanalytic various to subjected got genre horror hand, other the On and PleasuresofHorror Psychoanalysis 2.2. Hills, Matt. 2005. Urbano, Cosimo. 2004. “’What’s the Matterwith Melanie?’ Reflections on the Merits of Psychoanalytic Crane, Jonathan Lake. 1994. Genre,” ofaPopular Pleasures Peculiar The Horror? “Why 1997. Andrew. Tudor, Hills, Matt. 2005. Ibid., 25. Ibid., 23. London: Sage Publications, p. 24. 21 psychoanalytic approach may introduce potentially useful tools for revealing the revealing for tools useful potentially introduce may approach psychoanalytic The Pleasure ofHorror, ThePleasure The Pleasure ofHorror, ThePleasure Terror and the Everyday life: Singular Moments in the History ofHorror das unheimlich 22 Horror Film and Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Worst Nightmare London: Continuum, p. 46. London: Continuum, p. 45. 19 8 23 (literally,unhomely) as“undoubtedly related Similarly, Jonathan Lake Crane notices that notices Crane Lake Jonathan Similarly, 20 24 As horror pleasures are linked with . Hill argues that Freud’s essay on essay Freud’s that argues Hill . 18 cognitivistsHill,According to Cultural Studies, Vol. , ed. CEU eTD Collection affirmative for dominant ideological cultural order. or challenging both be may that genre horror of the potential ‘reactionary’ and ‘progressive’ the ego that avenges “itself on liberated female sexuality or freedom of the young.” super- of signal rather but of society, order symbolic dominant disrupt to threatens that unconscious happy ending (when it exists) typically signifying the restorationof repression. …andthe of horror … anobject as dramatized its re-emergence oppresses, or represses civilization our Monster. One mightsay the that true subject of the horror genre is strugglethe for recognition of all that term taken from Marcuse)Herbert that poses achallenge to dominant social order: that constitutes the Oedipal complex, butalso the necessarily politicized ‘surplus repression’ (the repression ‘basic’ to merely not attention paying films, horror of regard in uncanny the with appears surmounted” uncanny indicates the restoration of the repressed material or “primitive beliefs that have been of concept the Thus, phenomenon. familiar and old in dreadful and unfamiliar something discovering (either sadistically or masochistically) with punishment.” identification an invites film horror contemporary the repressed, ofthe return of the identification beginning from 1980s: “Where the traditional horror film invited, however ambiguously, an children. and homosexuality; ethnic groups within the culture; alternative ideologies or political systems; bisexuality and appearwhich order, social as dominant by repressed and monstrousmarginalized of ‘Others’, groups coded culturally lists in horror films: women and female sexuality; the proletariat; other cultures; feeling is present which justifies the special conceptual term.” conceptual special the justifies which present is feeling central to … [the horror film] … is the actual … dramatization of the … repressed in the figure of the figure the in …repressed of the … dramatization actual the is … film] horror [the … to central The figure of the monster acquires the meaning of culturally repressed groups of society. Wood of society. groups repressed culturally of meaning the acquires monster ofthe figure The 26 p.Ltd, 339. 30 29 28 to Reagan 27 25 Ibid, 372. Ibid, 195. Ibid, 195. Ibid, 74 – 76. Wood, Robin. 1986. “The American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film,” Freud, Sygmund. 1990. “The Uncanny,” in , New York: Columbia University Press, p. 75. 26 . Robin Wood (1986) developed the concept of the ‘return of the repressed’ that 28 Importantly,Wood registersthe functioninghorror shift in the Art and Literature (Penguin Freud Library), (Penguin and Art Literature 9 29 monsterThus, symbolisa nolongerof 25 The specificity of the uncanny is in 27 In Hollywood fromVietnam 30 outWood points Penguin Books CEU eTD Collection social order. such outcome as a‘restoration of the repression’, which signals the desire for reinstatementof the classifies Wood horrors. of scenario ‘reactionary’ into engaged is audience the destruction, narrative monster’s in pleasure Taking threat). the eliminating by order the restoring of end’ ‘happy classical representation of woman as monstrous. as woman of representation the analyze to ofhorror genre to ‘abject’ of concept the applies Creed literature. and psychoanalysis introduced by Julia Kristeva in Kristeva Julia by introduced ‘abject’, of notion the is approach her of concept key the ‘repression’, of Instead horror. of of pleasure under control on time (the monstrosity,which define femininity itself as the ‘uncanny’ and potentially dangerous if not taken femalemarked body, differenceby and sexual excess, asthe only source of herabnormality and boundaries ofnatural/supernatural, realistic/fantastic –the ‘realistic’ narrative of these films horrors –vampires, zombies,witches, werewolves. A woman in these filmsdoes not transcend the of monsters ‘classical’ from differs she that sense in ‘human’ totally staying while repression, further consciousness dehumanized, as ugly, horrible, and obscene therefore provoking punishment and (the obligations uncontrolled sexual desire, rejection of heterosexuality ( Antichrist interpretation of female monster as the ‘uncanny’. In the embodied monster,her very body as monstrous, the gender ideology of horror proposes the as woman constructing through desire female abjecting By I analyze. that films three saturate indicates the repressed social fears of the feminist movement and liberated female sexuality that In About aWoman? isScary What Defining ‘Monstrous-Feminine’: 2.3. double. I consider Wood’s concept of ‘reactionary’ pleasure specifically important for my research since it since my research for important specifically pleasure ‘reactionary’ of concept Wood’s I consider 31 Except the Except The Monstrous-Feminine woman monstrousappears and dangeroustherefore for social order because of her Black Swan Antichrist where the scenes of hallucinations evoke main character’s imaginary monstrous imaginary character’s evoke main ofhallucinations scenes the where ). She appears as ‘disorder that threatens all order’, perceived by Black Swan (1993) Barbara Creed (1993)Barbara proposes yetanotherpost-Freudian rereading Power of Horror: An Essay of Abjection and the Antichrist 10 The Piano Teacher Black Swan end up with the death of the monster – , The Piano Teacher ), and failing maternal (1982) concerning 31 , and the and , depicts CEU eTD Collection guide to the pre-symbolic pleasurable unity with the mother free from taboos:social broken by the ‘third term’, paternal symbolic orderof the society. As aresult, abject can function as a phases of subject development where ‘maternal authority’ of mother-child relationship isstill not ‘purification of the abject’ turns to be the main ideological function of horror. up only to finallysymbolic order ofhorrors: the confrontation with the abject (monstrous-feminine, corpse) is brought of restoration of separate function the about Wood of that to close is function abject’s about argument Creed’s “the symbolicmust be repelled by fearof self-annihilation. A crucial point is that abjection is always ambiguous.” order inevitably ambiguous: “The subject is constantly frombeset by abjection which fascinates desire but which is all horrors in abject experiencing from taken pleasure the that Creed, to According disintegration. threatens its stability.”being the ofthreat culturally constructed bordersbetween life and death, the proper and the improper. cultural boundariesof the The self. ultimate symbols ofabject inhorrors are corpse and cannibalism, demarcate that ‘unclean’ the and ‘clean’ the between border imaginary the protect to excluded place place in the symbolic. and incest.” and alteration, decay and death; human sacrifice;murder; the corpse; bodily wastes; the feminine body and tabooscultural concerning bodily processeslike “sexual immorality and perversion; corporeal 37 York: Routledge, p. 10. 36 Columbia University Press, p. 2. 35 York: Routledge, p. 9. Creed traces the ambiguous pleasure of fascination/repulsion of the abject to the pre-Oedipal ‘Abject’ inhorror films threatens cultural borders ofthe subject bydepicting physical self- 34 Columbia University Press, p. 72. ‘Abject’ is defined through the relation to physicality, bodily excess, religious rituals, and social and rituals, religious excess, bodily physicality, to relation the through defined is ‘Abject’ 33 Londonand New York: Routledge, p. 64. 32 Ibid, 14. Creed, Barbara. 1993. Barbara. Creed, Kristeva, Julia. 1982. Creed, Barbara. 1993. Barbara. Creed, Kristeva, Julia. 1982. Creed, Barbara. 2000. “Kristeva, Femininity, Abjection,” In symbolic as ‘whole and proper’. Consequently, they fill the subject …with disgust and loathing. images of bodily wastes threaten the subject that is already constituted, in relation to the 32 The protection of properbody’ ‘clean and 34 meaning collapses’‘place where ‘abject’a Thus, as PowersHorror: of An Essay on Abjection, PowersHorror: of An Essay on Abjection, The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, 11 33 is crucial for subject to maintain his/her maintain to subject for crucial is The Horror Reader trans. Leon S. Roudiez, New York: trans. Leon S. Roudiez, New York: , ed. by Ken Gelder, London and New- London and New- 35 radically be must 37 Thus, the Thus, 36 CEU eTD Collection interest for my research. Through the analysis of the of analysis the Through my research. for interest of particular is order, social and law paternal for disruptive be to appears which authority, maternal emphasize the impact of gender difference in constructing the monster. as man’s sexual other.” to perpetuate the thatbelief woman’s monstrous nature is inextricably bound up with her difference So, for Creed abjection “is afunction of the ideological project of the horror film – aproject designed connection to the world’.‘animal In horror femininity getsequated with monstrousness and abject. difference. sexual to linked it isabout woman thatis shocking, terrifying, horrific, abject” what “of monstrous-feminine of a myths developed societies all that asserts Creed power. castrating women-as-monsters to turn be horrible exactly becauseof theiractive and aggressive position, of figures the Creed For frightening. a result as and castrated killer, a by murdered and tortured such classical horrors like horrors classical such film, horror in with identify to character powerful a without left is audience according horror is generally misogynistic and the to pleasure derived from it is inherently masculine. While, majority of feminist film critics, for example Linda Williams (1996), the woman 42 41 York: Routledge, p. 1. As Creed underlines social anxiety surrounding the maternal and femininity, herof concept female and body her through abject to relation special a has woman Creed, to According 40 Eds. Doane, Mellencamp and Williams, American Film Institute MonographSeries. 39 38 Introducing the conceptof maternal authority, Creed negotiates thewide-spread assumption that Ibid, 3. Ibid, 83. Creed, Barbara. 1993. Barbara. Creed, In Looks,” Woman the “When 1983. Linda. Williams, Ibid, 13. marked by an untrammeled pleasure in ‘playing’ with the body and its wastes. taboo onfilth … and a pleasure in returning to that time whenthe mother-child relationship was of breaking in pleasure a invoke may wastes ofbodily representation the level archaic more existed; when bodily nature’ and wastes mother between ‘a fusion when atime to back point also they … hand other werethe On not seen as objects of embarrassment and shame. … At a 41 The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Alien to monstrous-feminineparticularly byCreed is used of The concept , Exorcist , and Carrie 12 Black Swan the female character appears not as a victim, Re-Vision: Essays onFeministFilm Criticism. 40 and that the notion of abject is firmly and The Piano Teacher 42 39 38 Creed argues that in London and New- I will show CEU eTD Collection psyche and form the opposition production/reproduction in which (creative) production is connoted female for damaging potentially as connoted get also of occupation spheres these Thus, research. characters of chosen films are engaged in ‘creative’ professions: ballets, music playing, academic masochist that, so to speak, ‘withdraws her rights’ from the symbolic. Interestingly, all the three female character re-appears in the genre not avictim as of akillermonster, or but as a self-punishing the Importantly, genre. horror in femininity of representation in backlash conservative the show Creed in films of the female charactersmonstrous and female desire as dangerous and culturally destructive.will I compare the specificities represented self-mutilation in in these films plays the ofpart the main cinematic device of theseabjection of feminine as films with directedthe to themselves castrating makes the identification with the characters female painful and impossible, asfigures a result described by self-mutilation in monsters, in terms,Creed’s primarily because they subject themselves to masochist violence (sexual ‘uncanny’. ofthe notion toFreud’s figure her tight to allow which violence, to inclinations unsuspected and sexuality, of uncontrolled outbursts disintegration, identity to her leads also that obligations, daughters. In the daughters. provokes thedevelopmentof mental disturbance (necessarily accompanied with sexual perversity) in Teacher necessary ‘third term’ that guarantees the stability of order. In the oforder. stability the guarantees that term’ ‘third necessary roles, primarilysymbolic order where woman’s desire is controlledthe across the (patriarchal) linesof traditional gender roles of motherblood, self-mutilation, violence,excessive sexuality,madness) hasapolitical aim of restoration of the and wife. Moreover,female sexuality and female bond through the gesture of abjectification (character’s alignmentwith it tends bond/age as asite of cultural pathologizationto and repression. Iwill argue such that pathologization of reclaim the fatherfemininity figure of representation of the of construction favor in functions as authority of maternal fear a the how as monstrous in its nature. I will also address the issue of female (mother/daughter) From my perspective, the female characters in these films cannot be defined as active, castrating it is the ofabsence father figure allowsthat inflation of pre-symbolic maternal authority and Alien The Piano Teacher Antichrist and Carrie main character’s ‘madness’ is provoked by her failing maternal and the trope of the ‘final girl’ discussed by Carol J. Clover (2000) to and the and Antichrist 13 ) or asuicide (the Black Swan Black Swan and ). The violence The ). The Piano CEU eTD Collection in view of these processes through analyzing also the reviews of the films. female sexuality and the achievements of feminist movement, trying to ‘contextualize’ the symbolic how the representation of femininity in these filmsis informed by the (masculine) fearof liberated concepts of (seemingly historically unchangeable) ‘unconscious’, ‘repressed’, ‘desire’, Iwill trace disruption’ that Iidentified in all three films. descriptive, and not prescriptive, psychoanalysis allows revealing cultural patterns of ‘order as Taken family. nuclear in infant of socialization the through patriarchy within construction degrading of women, itis also a discourse describesthat thegender identity and sexuality traditionally criticized by feminists (Mitchell 1982, Irigaray 1985, Rose 2005) as phallocentric and being is theory this Despite above. described Lacanian) and Freudian (both psychoanalysis crisis. as anti-feminine in terms ofits narrative alignmentwith madness, uncontrolled sexuality, and identity As Iwant tomove from forward overall universalist claims ofpsychoanalysis based on the of framework theoretical the on rely mostly I will films ofthese my interpretation In 14 CEU eTD Collection argues that violence in horror movies produces the effect of seemingly excessive and ‘gratuitous’ terror, ‘gratuitous’ and excessive of seemingly effect the produces movies in horror violence that argues She body. female the to inrelation emotion to oriented is melodrama and arousal, sexual evoke to argued spectator. The horror genre is toevoke the specific (bodily) reaction ofwhile terror, pornography is reaction to be evoked by their representation of the body, particularly that of the female body, in the (bodily) specific of the terms in differentiated are They horror. and melodrama pornography, genres, film disturbing appearancesof bleeding, crunching, scratching, and wounding. most inits flesh is it hand, other on the theatricality, implies such as profession ballerina the as long violent and disturbing manner. straightforwardly a in expressed identity Nina’s of disintegration gradual the portrays film The movement. unrestraint, with and danced be to needs thewhich Swan, Black Whiteseductive – character same Swan,of the incarnations thedifferent one that demands technical preciseness and delicate control of every lead role in the new production of production new the in role lead Ripley from monsters’ ‘castrating female to Nina character Portman’s Natalie Comparing role. leading for Actress Best for Award Academy an Portman Natalie brought and critics by perceived positively was controversy, is It cinema. in Western monstrous as woman of representation the of persistence In her research on ‘body genres’, Linda Williams (1991) distinguishes three ‘gross’ or ‘sensational’ or ‘gross’ three distinguishes (1991) Williams Linda genres’, ‘body on research In her Nina’s body, as well as her psyche, is a central matter of the film: on the one hand, it is a spectacle as In this chapter Iwill discuss Darren Aronofsky’s film, Black Swan’s plot unfolds in the setting of the balletworld. Nina Sayer, aballerina in her 20s, wins the genre in thehorror monsters andcastrating castrated ‘Ejecting theabject’: 3.1. 3. ‘Maternal authority’ and the pathological female bond in the bondin female andthepathological ‘Maternal authority’ 3. Alien (1979) and Carrie from Swan Lake Black Swan Carrie . The plot develops while she attempts to embody two (1976) I will identify the backlash in the horror genre. 15 Black Swan (2010) as an example of the a film that, in spite of its CEU eTD Collection ‘Maternal authority’ is characterized by the sheer pleasure of unity, and only in the symbolic ‘phallic in so far as she is thenotion of horrific, undifferentiated, unsymbolized. For Kristeva, abject isidentified with firstthe maternal body person who vomit,teaches pus, or shit. Thesea child images, Creed aboutargues,Kristeva’s concept ofabject asapolluted areobject frequently associated in culture with imagesofcentral blood, the in Westerndifference cultures for the construction Monstrous-Feminine:between Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis of the clean and unclean. unsuccessful dancer who brought Nina upby herself. female characters of the film(although she embodiesmonstrosity), butshe is constructed as such interrelationsthrough with other – ex-prima ballerina Beth, her rivalry Lily, and, most of all, her mother, an identity disintegration. identity by fierce arerehearsals, constantly bleeding, and she has hallucinations about her fingersbleeding) and damaged toes, (Nina’s bleeding as genre horror of tropes such through figure monstrous a as constructed the representation of femininity as monstrous in this film. She argues that Nina’s body is narratively meaning) with the ‘realistic’ shaky camera of the auteur film, nominated for an Oscar award. who disapproved his experimentation with combining ‘genre elements’ (in their devaluing low-brow with a nail file) was a reasonexcess ofphysicality in Aronofsky’s film (such as bleeding toes, Ninapricking ex-primafor ballerina Beth disappointment and criticismalthough it has “its system and structure as well as … effect on bodiesof spectators.” from the side of those critics and viewers basic sexual fantasies” The concept of monstrous-feminine was developed by Barbara Creed (1993) in her book In her critical account of account critical her In [Accessed 5May 2012] Availiable at: 46 4. 45 2012] [Accessed 5May Calhoun, Dave. 2010. [Accessed 5May 2012], 44 43 It seems reasonable to pose “a question of gender construction as well as gender address in relation to Mortimer,2010.Danielle.“DarrenAronofsky’s Williams, Linda. 1991. “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess,” in Film Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 4, p. Williams, Linda. 1991. “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess,” 2010. Kirk. Honeycutt, See 45 46 concerning I suggestmonstrous-femininethat in Black Swan Black Swan. Danielle Mortimer (2010) also turns to psychoanalysis to explain “Black Swan,” [online] Availiable at: Availiable [online] Swan,” “Black The Bottom Line Black Swan Black 16 in reference to horror films. She draws on Julia and the Monstrousness of Lack.” [online] Black Swan Film Quarterly, , [online] Availiable at: is not restricted to Nina alone Vol. 44, No. 4, p. 3. 43 Apparently,the 44 The CEU eTD Collection kill them schoolat prom. along with her puberty. Her classmates bullyher school, at soshe finally uses her supernatural powersto and in Sumer as Nammu.”China she was known as Nu Kwa,mythological systems of world. the in Itis “aMother-Goddeswho alone creates theheavens andearth. In Mexico different as in mother’ Coatlicue,of ‘archaic signs the finds Creed order. symbolic disrupt to threatens in which verbal Greece as Gaiapre- or semiotic with (literallyis associated mother Kristeva, For monster. the to birth giving mother a pre-phallic meaning ‘earth’) like Ripley in Ripley like figures ofthe genre might evoke terrornot as castrated subjects, but as aggressive agents of castration female sexuality is abject” that notion phallocentric the “reinforce may monster as female ofthe representation hand, one onthe that, significant challenge to Freud’s theory of sexual difference and feminine passive disposition. She clamed into the order.symbolic child ofa passage the and castration to relation in role a significant play to appears monstrous-feminine relates to woman’s reproductive and mothering functions, i.e. her sexuality. Moreover,examined closer, always monstrous-feminine of representation the that argues Creed ofabjection, framework theoretical two orders: the maternal authority and the law of the father.” between split a signify They non-human. the and human the between boundaries the redraw and abject the confrontation with the abject (the corpse, bodily wastes, the monstrous-feminine) in order finally to eject the abject’ fulfills the ideological function of the horror: “The horror film attempts to bring about a of ‘ejection that argues Creed ‘monstrous-feminine’. of figure a as films horror in represented and order from ‘proper’ parts of the body. order’ the institutions of shame, embarrassment, guilt come into play to signify the abject as differentiated 51 50 49 New-York,and p.14. 48 Columbia University Press, p. 74. No. 1, p. 58. 52 47 Ibid., 151. Ibid, 151. Ibid, 15. Creed, Barbara. 1993. Barbara. Creed, Creed,Barbara. 1986. “Horror and Monstrous-Feminine:the An Imaginary Abjection.” Kristeva, Julia. 1982. Alien (1979) or Carrie in 49 PowersHorror: of An Essay on Abjection, Creed’s detailed investigation of the monstrous-feminine in horror films posed a The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, 50 52 , on the other hand, other on the , In Carrie 47 Thus, ‘maternal authority’ becomes abjected in the paternal symbolic Carrie , a schoolgirl Carrie gains the powersof telekinesis which come (1976) who horrify male viewers. Creed describes Ripley as femme castrice, femme 17 trans. Leon S. Roudiez, New York: the castrating mother and other monster other and mother the castrating 48 Setting the horror film in Kristeva’s in film horror the Setting Routledge: London Screen, Vol. 27, 51 CEU eTD Collection of Freud’s theory of female sexuality. Employing Derridean deconstructive approach to Freud’s writing, he writing, Freud’s to approach deconstructive Derridean Employing sexuality. offemale theory of Freud’s The struggle, asit was understood through the interplay of doubles, she led with her alter ego. fact that she’s castrated, what supposedly triggered hermaniac perseverance in struggle for the leading role. manifests several times in the narrative, was interpreted by Mortimer as penisNina supposes,will help her to envy,reach perfection. This modernist motiveNina’s of ‘perfection’, which really rejection of the film a viewernotices her neurotic constraint, excessive hankering to self-control and discipline which, as destabilizing identity, accompanied with releasing repressed sexual desires. From the very beginning of the object). aphallic as Mortimer by interpreted (rightly glass of piece Mortimer’s in overlooked was analysis, what and important, more is what But formation. identity influencing factors is the origins of Nina’sfact self-negation that she thatwas begins.culminates However,she alreadyspent all herlife in a highly competitive surrounding of the world of ballet, and the in‘at her odds stabbing with herself her body’with a can be interpreted as a marker of interplay of social Swan Queen” Swan world - that of the prima ballerina pressure of social situation Nina findsherself in: “she portrays acharacter whoexists inahigh-pressure - she the devalues she Also is Beth). shownex-prima of room dressing a in finds she which already board emery an and lipstick (a at odds with her body beforewhat is manifested in scratching and bleeding hallucinations, and sheshe reveals attachment to phallic objectsis cast as the characters Carrie in Ninathat is shown as acastrated female character blindly driven penisby envy, unlike ‘castrating’ 2) as a castrator to point out the ‘backlash’ tendency of female representation in To To explain the structure that underpins Nina’s relations with hermother Iwill address Culler’s reading gradually her through also but body, bleeding of her means by only not portrayed is monstrosity Nina’s [Accessed 5May 2012] Availiable at: Mortimer employs Creed’s ‘progressive’ concept of monstrous-feminine (discussed in detail in Chapter 53 Mortimer,2010.Danielle.“DarrenAronofsky’s 53 and she is shown vomitto her andscratch back before the competition for theleading role Carrie (1976) and Ginger in Ginger Snaps Black Swan Black 18 and the Monstrousness of Lack.” [online] (2000). Nina isunsatisfied with her body, Black Swan . She claims She . CEU eTD Collection her clitoris. At the same time, unawarehorrible of the threat existence of being of hercastrated vagina, thehimself. girl feelsThe girlthat isthe said boy tois discover‘more is that the boy's penis is bigger than in girls. The boy perceives a girl as castrated being with a ‘mutilated organ’ ‘mutilated a with being castrated as girl a perceives boy The girls. in (clitoris). of pre-Oedipal masturbation. The girl also discovers adifference between male organ and her own organ hevaluesthat veryhighly because of the he pleasure learned to take out from init the period/course an penis, a has being human every that presumes boy alittle that supposes model The model. centered constitution and described the process of female identity acquisition with reference to thismasculine- However,it issignificant thatFreud took the profile of a little boy as an idealmodel of psychosexual emphasizesfemininity’ inhisessays “Female Sexuality” (1931) and “Femininity” (1933). In “Femininity” he the decisiveof feminine masculineand dispositions. Sigmund Freud made explicit attempts to solve the ‘riddle of role of castrationexplore the function this sexualized female monstrosity fulfills in the film whichand meanings it implies. complexwell as her damaged body. But,following William’s inquiry about ‘body genres’, it ismore important to for – sexual anesthesia or‘frigidity’ and later sexual perversion manifestedsexual through homosexual fantasies) as identity formation in girls and boys. disposition. bisexual originally female to ascribing through binary) the in dominant claims that psychoanalytic theory ‘deconstructs itself’ (itshierarchical structure where the male is a constructed in cinema in general, conceptual andbasis forfurther discussion about the female monsteras a representative figure of fearin inthe the horror genre in particular. It makes possible for me to argue that Nina is Ithaca. pp. 169 – 170. 56 identify in relation to ‘visible’ penis. 55 Ithaca), pp. 169 – 170. Psychoanalysis as a theory aims to explain gender identity constitution and the processes of formation of processes the and constitution identity gender explain to aims theory a as Psychoanalysis 54 The overview of female sexuality as it is constructed in psychoanalytic theory is necessary to establish a establish to necessary is theory psychoanalytic in constructed is it as sexuality of female overview The 3.2. Psychoanalytic explanationofgenderdifference Culler, Jonathan. 1983. Freud thought that girls are unaware of having vagina in the early childhood,that is why sexesboth Culler, Jonathan. 1983. 55 The discovery of difference in sexual organs leads to castration complex in boys and penisenvy Black Swan On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism as a monster primarily by means ofrepresenting her ‘abnormal’ sexuality (first 19 56 and as an embodiment of embodiment an as and , Cornell University: , Cornell University: 54 CEU eTD Collection according to Freud, is a pass to ‘normal’ femininity. ‘normal’ to pass a is Freud, to according Oedipal child from the father, which is, as Freud claims, the mythic equivalenthostility of the penis. Suchto scenario, the mother as her rivalConcurrently she abandons her active ‘masculine’ forlibido, accepts passive disposition, and develops the father’s love. Later penisfather as an objectof desire, perceiving himenvy one the who can give her what themother failed to give. is replaced by wish to obtain an penis and won’t ‘grow any bigger’ a actually not is clitoris her that realized Having differentiation. of gender moment this in being into comes inferiority.” acknowledges the offact her castration, and with it, too, the superiority of themale and herown equipped’ and do not forgive her being for putat thus a disadvantage”. blames her mother in not giving herup having a heterosexualit:orientation? Freud explainsthat after the girl discovers her lack of penis, she “…girls hold their mother’s responsiblebut also reorients her desire to objectsthe of another sex. Sohow does agirl with bisexual disposition end formother, to their attachment her only not represses she lack later thought, Freud as ofbut, mother, a thealso is penisobject-cathex assumption about female bisexual disposition on ofthe ground the fact that for the girl firstpre-Oedipal adulthood. in manifest may and effect long-lasting a has of castration fear However, of super-ego. point organizing an as introjected is authority paternal his and father, with identification for exchanged and abandoned is mother with cathex will be castrated for it by the father. The desire is then reoriented to other objects of the female sex. Object- last stage of the Oedipal drama whenhe abandons hismother as then object of desire,his fearing that he 61 60 and Other Works, of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (1927-1931): The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and its Discontents, 59 58 [Accessed 5May 2012] 57 On the other hand, Freud describes the girl ashaving a ‘bisexual disposition’. Freud makes an For Freud, the castration complex becomes anorganizing principle of the psyche. For the boy it isthe Ibid. Ibid. Freud, Sigmund. 1931. “Female Sexuality,” Ibid. Freud, Sigmund, 1933. “Femininity”, [online] Availiable at: 57 and developscomplex a ofinferiority accompanied with penis envy. for Thus, Freud a female 59 pp. 221-244. 58 , the girl accepts her castration as an established fact: “She The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works 20 61 The failure to accept castration may lead to neurosis 60 Driven envy,by penis girl the chooses the CEU eTD Collection daughter.” the father date To standspatrocentric. is subject human individual the in through the refracted perceived is that positionorder social human of the the ‘thirdbecause is it phallocentric is psychoanalysis if Freud, term’ “To order: symbolic patriarchal of thatstability must break the asocial identity and heterosexualdyadic object-choice in girls. Speaking broadly, positive Oedipus complex assures unit feminine shaping ofassures Freud, to motheraccording process, This figure. father by and represented term’ third ‘the by “awakening”. for perceived as anorm in a bourgeois patriarchal society, positioning the woman as asexual object waiting as a ‘superior equipment.’ a‘superior as as women are led envy by penis the value of the itself penis stays unquestioned can and really be perceived the emphasis on penis envy in the center of feminine sexuality is the source for mastering women: as long conditions of such identity formation and leaving little possibility for change. should of the choice of an object in the sense of manifest homosexuality.“ or ‘masculinity complex’ in the girl which in its “extreme achievement… would appear to be influencing femininity by a patriarchal culture,” patriarchal bya femininity into 'induced' psychically “are women model Freudian in the that argues and a paradigm as ‘functionalism’ female children are aware of their vaginas. that claiming identity sexual of principle aconstructive as girls in envy penis and complex castration about identification.early As as in 1922 Karen Horney revealed observations thatcontested Freud’s assumptions freudienne, For girl’s ‘successful’ passage into symbolic order, her pre-Oedipal bond with mother has to broken be to has mother with bond pre-Oedipal her order, symbolic into passage ‘successful’ girl’s For 67 Ithaca), pp. 169 – 170. 66 65 64 by Men and by Women.” In 63 62 Feminist critique of Freud is focused on his phallocentrism in the explanation ofpsychosexual explanation the in phallocentrism his on focused is ofFreud critique Feminist Mitchel, Juliet and Rose, Jacqueline, eds. 1982 Culler, Jonathan. 1983. Ibid, 89. Rose, Jackueline. 2005. Horney, Karen. 1926. “The Flight from Womanhood: The Masculinity-Complex in Women, as Viewed as Women, in Masculinity-Complex The Womanhood: from Flight “The 1926. Karen. Horney, Ibid. do) or descriptive (what they are they (what descriptive or do) 67 For Lacan, ‘paternal metaphor’ or‘phallus’establishes gender identity and subject’s place in trans. Jacqueline Rose, London: Macmillan, p. 23. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism 66 Sexuality in the Field of Vision The idea of penis envy in women serves as validation of the phallic order International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 64 and then process issustainedthis by either prescriptive (what women expected . Feminine Sexuality: Jacques Lacan and the école 63 Jacqueline Rose (2005) points out psychoanalysis’s out points (2005) Rose Jacqueline 21 to do) arguments without acknowledging historical , Verso: London, New York, p. 89. 62 , vol., 7, pp.324-339,unpaginated. 65 For Jonathan Culler(1983) , Cornell University: CEU eTD Collection Thomas (the ballet of the director by onlyis represented daughter and mother ‘unambiguous between bond ‘anti-social’ an disrupt to character’ of the film establishes symbolic. in the of power signifier a into transformed and a male as a ‘norm’). He differs from Freud’s ‘penisenvy’ performs in a sense that itisallegedly detached from actual biological organ male the desire of themother transcends her child (‘she wants something else’, i.e. phallus). Wanting a ‘phallus’ other, ‘reaching perfection’response to the penisenvy, but through identification with maternal desire. If desire is always desire of the (an often used desire of the Other,and Othertrope isametaphor of symbolic order.Nina’s psyche was constructed not in in a film) means maternalto give the desiremother phallus,for phallus as long (as as a metaphorlanguorous and isolated existence outside paternal symbolic order. of reflects power corridors narrow with flat claustrophobic Their in bond. pre-Oedipal thelong-drawn this reveal also symbolic). Nina) hurting scissors, with them cuts cruelly and Lacanforcefully mother as castration of symbolism and theorizesabject desire asputs alwaysNina into bad, brushes her hair, undresses toys, amusicher, boxwith a tiny ballerina. The sings of physical contact betweenmotherand daughter and (mother pairs her nails – a scene excessively with herinvested single mother.Nina’s room connotes her childishness and pre-Oedipal fixation: pink walls, fluffy with lives twenties, her in woman young a Nina, monstrosity. Nina’s determines which bond, mother/daughter and this condition, according to the narrative of the film, leads to establishmentof pathological language, symbols, and signifiers. words, through created and with associated is it Lacan For accessibility. psyche’s of guarantee a psyche, language and the associations of signifiers. The function of symbolic orderis organization of subject’s the Symbolic. The figure of the father, (‘the third term’) which, according to the mechanism of Oedipal complex, has appropriation and sexuality of her regression to leads super-ego maternal ofthe introjection Nina’s in mother-daughter couple the that argue I would in theBlackSwan ofmonstrosity interrelations Female 3.3. 68 Rose, Jackueline. 2005. 68 Symbolic is a Lacanian term which means the order of subject constitution through constitution subject of order the means which term Lacanian a is Symbolic Sexuality in the Field of Vision 22 Black Swan , Verso: London, New York, p. 64 – 65. lacks the ‘third term’, the father figure, CEU eTD Collection Lipstick and nail file are only fetishes, symbols of the phallus Beth obtains. According to Thomas, Beth is Beth Thomas, to According obtains. Beth phallus of the symbols fetishes, only are file nail and Lipstick things fromher dressing room and puts onher lipstickwhen goes to ask Thomas togiveher the role. unlike Lily, she ratherhomosexuality, butBeth, ex-prima ballerina of the company. Ninadoes not perceive her acompetitor, as wants to resemble her or even be her.alter ego, is represented by the struggleIt of White Swan and becomesBlack Swan identities. clear when Nina steals Beth’swhich also contributes to her identity split. what she lacks. The has conflict supposedly who Lila, onto ego deepens alter repressed her project to with tends she and psyche, Nina’s split Nina’s inside desire for Lily and her perception of Lily as competitor,struggle for theleading role in performance, which once again proves thatthis competition takes place Nina’s sexual desire as perverse, obscene, and monstrous. Moreover,Lily is not thatinvested in the reaction on mentioningNina’s their sexual contact (which she believes took inplace reality) presents harsh Lily’s Lily. about fantasies lesbian has she other, the On her. seduce to attempts persistent Thoma’s them having sex, which reveals the conflict of her sexual orientation – on the one hand she yields to about hallucination a has Nina Afterwards drugs. take to Nina persuades Lily where club, inthe party the after happens It sex. had they that fantasy of Nina’s rejection sharp by heterosexuality her emphasizes She may lack technique, but she ‘just has it’ as if (hetero)sexuality is a‘natural’ attribute of ‘normal’ femininity. cannotobtain a place assigned, inFreud’s terms, to ‘normal’ femininity in the phallic symbolic order. the phallic phase without thedamaging outcome for her psyche. The ‘monster’ with ambiguous sexuality nail the Black Swan role. He kissesthrough Nina’s relationship with her,Thomaswho strives to ‘awake’ Nina’s(hetero)sexual desire to helpher to touches, and asks to masturbate at home. But Nina fails enteringLily. about fantasy heterosexual course. The fact that Nina issituated outside heterosexualmatrix is confirmed by her lesbian desire repressed by maternal super-ego. This isfunction what also is supposed to channelof seduction,her desire in ‘normative’ which Freud interpreted as one of the primary fantasies, and releases her sexual I would argue, the real object ofrebellious her and Nina’sdesire maternal with identification Nina’s between desire unfolds which conflict, Further is not Lily, who turns to be a figure revealing Nina’s It is remarkable that the only un-abjectified female character in the film is Lily, Nina’s competition. She However, the Oedipal drama takes place too late. The situation of ‘paternal seduction’ is represented 23 CEU eTD Collection the pedestal she finds the eyes of her mother in the crowd to reassure herself that her desire is fulfilled. conclusion the pass tomonstrous-feminine. the to bring to also but identity, of Nina’s dissolution final of a sign a as only not revealed was who Which istrue, but this actof symbolic wascastration performed by her own ego,alter the Mortimer claims that “thereturning shard to ofher glass dressing she roomremoves again canNina bemeets taken alive to ThomasLily (arepresent male character), but two womenand – Beth and herself. realizes the castratedthat she actually phallus” stabbed herself. as a as acting Obviously controversy. without not is into turned Nina which in monster castrating the Still, Swan). an embodiment of her monstrosity,performance as aBlack Swan – in her performance of the Black Swan part she really turns into it, becomes liberatedactive by the subject killingcastrating, and ofcastrated desirebetween border the crosses she ofthat is fact The long. provenso a for competitor struggled Ego her which by an unexpected (andidentity, kiss monstrous the accepts her finally which and glass of piece a with alter rivalry the catch stabs She performance. of Thomasego by– a surpriseWhite after her perfectshe comes back to herdressing room and finds there Lily who is preparing to herreplace in the second part guilt, of feeling with Filled her. drops partner her and hallucination by distracted is she Swan White of the hand. nail filer and stabs herselfperformance in the Ninaface. comes to InBeth’s the hospitalelevator room to givefrightened her back her things, Nina but desperatediscovers Beth grabs bloodied the nail filer in her progresses and the identity of revengeful of identity the and progresses crippled body becomes anultimate confirmation thatshe lacks phallus. From now on her psychosis disappointment comes when to Nina retired (already castrated once) Bethgets over run by a car,and her a pure perfection. And this is what Nina wants to achieve to satisfy mother’s desire. The real In the last scene Nina dances as a White Swan knowing that she’s dying. Before she has to jump from Moreover, price she has to pay for transgression from castrated to castrating subject is her death. After Nina turns into turns Nina [Accessed 5May 2012] Availiable at: 69 femme castrice femme Mortimer,2010.Danielle.“DarrenAronofsky’s femme castrice femme , described by Creed, positioned as active and not passive, Nina-Black Swan attacks not once again inone of the final scenes of the film. While dancing the part femme castrice femme Black Swan Black 24 manifests more often. The day before the and the Monstrousness of Lack.” [online] femme castrice femme 69 . CEU eTD Collection which the monster has to die. to has monster the which this respect, fulfills the function identified by Creed: ittends to reaffirm ‘the law of the father’ according to the fear of ‘maternal authority’ that threatens to overturn the Oedipal structure of patriarchy. And horror, in symbolic order.In the film monstrousthe couple mother-daughter disturbs the phallic Kajaorder. outcome of negative Oedipus complex where the phallusdoes not function any more as aguarantee of subject.” the Name-of-the-Father,soliciting our belief in the (paternal) family and the sufficiency of the male main vehicle of ‘our’ current dominant fiction is the positive Oedipal complex, which accommodates usto The identifications. and desires normative encouraging by order symbolic given a with line into individuals ‘ideology’ to explain the functioning of Western cultural imagery: employs Silverman Lauretis, To conclude, I tried to make the point that in 70 Chaudhuri,Shohini.2006. 70 The fearthat Barbara Creed, Jacques Ranci Jacques Black Swan Routledge: New York, p. Feminist Film Theorists: Laura Mulvey, KayaSilverman, Teresa de þ re’s concept of ‘dominant fiction’ which corresponds to the notion of notion the to corresponds which fiction’ of ‘dominant concept re’s invoked through abjectifying female sexuality as monstrous exposes 108. 25 Black Swan monstrous-feminine is constructed as an “The dominant fiction brings fiction dominant “The CEU eTD Collection ‘postmodern’ mix of melodrama and horror does not represent the monster as merely the violator of violator the as merely monster the represent not does horror and melodrama of mix ‘postmodern’ of a false social order about which we are in great denial” stylistic conventions and that itsmajor contribution lies “within human relationships and the collapse dimension of class.He claims thatthe postmodern reconceptualization of the horror genre exceeds the film as horror, but, calling the film ‘the horror of the middle class’ while Jean Ma defines the film as melodrama or anti-romance.lover, daughter’s and daughter, mother, between relationship ‘perverse’ psychically a about narrative violence, self-mutilation, and the shots of pornographic content underscoring the melodramatic a094843210> [Accessed 17 May 2012] [Accessed 17May 2012] 76 [Accessed 17May 2012] 75 companion to Michael Haneke, The concept of maternal authority in horror films as it was discussed in Chapter 3 may serve as Robin Wood saw awarding inThePianoTeacher as‘socialsickness’ Monstrosity 4.1. Wood, Robin. 2002. “Do I Disgust You?" or, tirez pas sur La Pianiste,” Ibid. Ibid. Sharrett,Christopher.2004. Middle of Horror “The Class”, the Ma, Jean. 2010. “Discordant Desires, Violent Refrains: La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher).” In Teacher).” Piano (The Pianiste La Refrains: Violent Desires, “Discordant 2010. Jean. Ma, 4. Masochist monster and 'maternal authority' in Hoberman, J. 2002. “Prisoner’s Songs,” 72 . J. Hoberman called the film a ‘modernist, cerebral horror’ The Piano Teacher A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication. Teacher 71 on the part of the jury against the background of the The Piano Teacher, 26 with a Grand Prix in 2001 and the awards to its 76 Village Voice Village . 74 ChristopherSharrettalso classifies the film that has evoked equally Kinoeye 4:1. 73 Free Online Library, forits scenes of sexual brutal . [online] Availiable at: 75 , adding the important the , adding [online] Availiable at: The Piano [online] A CEU eTD Collection dichotomy in relation to assumptions about ‘proper femininity’ in patriarchal society. patriarchal in femininity’ ‘proper about assumptions to relation in dichotomy daughter bond/age, theinfringement of the heterosexual matrix, and the reproduction/creativity circumstances that are considered to be responsible for shaping the monster: the family, the mother- research interest I will mostly focus on the bourgeois visions of social ‘sickness’ underside and oppressiveness of the ideology of ‘romantic love’ ‘postmodern’ critical commenton the persistence of traditional bourgeois values aswell as the ‘evil’. and oppositions, making ‘abnormal’ the derivative of the ‘normal’, pointing to the Janus face of ‘good’ cinema? sexuality in the award winning movie indicative of the so-called ‘developed’ and ‘liberated’ world of undergird thatmonstrosity? Whatis still there assumed as abject and monstrous regarding feminine then how does themiddle class see monsters?its What assumptions about gender and sexuality People Candyman Black Lagoon, King Kong) beast and man non-human, and human between border the Austrian playwright and novelist Elfride Jelinek. Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) is a piano tutor in a The Piano Teacher monstrosity ofmasochist authorityandtheorigins Maternal 4.2. profession as a tutor. a as profession her merely not music”, to commitment her and musicianship “personal Erica’s emphasizes novel the 80 a094843210> [Accessed 17May 2012] [Accessed 17May 2012]; 78 No. 1, p. 49. 77 As Robin Wood (2002) rightly noticed, English translation is slightly misleading, as long as the name of Wood, Robin. 2002. “Do I Disgust You?" or, tirez pas sur La Pianiste,” See Sharrett, Christopher. 2004. “The Horror of Middlethe Class”, Abjection,” Imaginary An Monstrous-Feminine: the and “Horror 1986. Barbara. Creed, ) 77 . Implemented into a realistic narrative, the monstrous confuses and defamiliarizes these defamiliarizes and confuses monstrous the narrative, arealistic into Implemented . The Piano Teacher ), or the border between normal and abnormal sexual desire ( desire sexual abnormal and normal between border or the ), A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication. (2001) was filmed novel after the , natural and unnatural ( is a complicated cultural text, and it may be considered as a The Piano Teacher is a‘horror of the middle class’ as Sharrett argues, Carrie, Carrie, The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, 27 (Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde, Creature from the Die Klavierspielerin Die Kinoeye 4:1. 78 my of inthe framework but Free Online Library, Cruising, TheHunger, Cat [online] Availiable at: Availiable [online] 80 Screen, the by (1983) A companion 79 [online] ad those and Vol. 27, CEU eTD Collection mother has gained central place in women (often autobiographical) literature from early phases of phases early from literature autobiographical) (often inwomen place central gained has mother commitment and self-restriction. domains of ballet and classical music, respectively – where professional success demands full Piano Teacher Except that the drama of the subject takes place in the realm of family in the films reveal a similarstructure of this relationship and outcomes concerning maternal authority. Nina’s identity struggle, in reverses her fantasy into a brutal rape scene. he humiliation, and anger with filled later, although participate, to refuses first at he demands, to her musical class, Walter makes an attempt to seduce Erika. Faced with her masochistic erotic falls in love with her and pursues her favor in spite of Erika’s outward the attentioncoldness. of ayoung and musically gifted aristocrat, Walter Klemmen (BenoitAfter Magimel), who being accepted transmitter of high art. In the private home concert Erika’s performance of Bach’s concerto attracts practices that is usually not associated with the image of the respectable Viennese teacher and voyeurism, watching pornography, and masturbatory techniques that involve genital mutilation – narrative, effects Erika’s sexual life. Erika finds a way for satisfying herfumbles ‘deformed’ sexual desires she in ininstance, (for life herpersonal daughter’s purse, the in interferes rudely She well-being. calls financial and to work status social own her of when a guarantee as career daughter’s her with Erikaobsessed is who woman controlling is late home), which, and lives withherelderlyaccording and possessive mother (Annie Girardot). She is anover-caring and to the logicand demanding conduct of her students.of Erika isin hermid-thirties or her near forties. She is single the Vienna conservatoire. She is respected for her talent and self-discipline, but also known for a strict Barbara Kosta (1994) in her critical comment on the Jelinek novel underlines thatthe figure of the Unlike in Klavierspielerin.” 81 SeeBarbara.“Inscribing1994. Kosta, Mother-Daughter Erika: Bond/ageElfriedein Jelinek's"Die Black Swan , both films are situated in the settings of high culture – theextremely competitive Monatshefte, , where , where the mother/daughter relationship is narratively outbalanced by The Piano Teacher Vol. 86, No. 2. this ‘bond/age’ 28 81 is foregrounded. Nevertheless, both Nevertheless, foregrounded. is Black Swan andThe CEU eTD Collection the pleasure of theorgasm. Masochism, onthe other hand, draws on pregenital sexuality and derives contrasts with sadistic genital sexuality,masochism in the pre-Oedipal phase of infancy, where the child’s goal is unity with the mother.It which desires to controland masochism and denies their reciprocity.the other and has its central aim (1991) basedin on his studies ofSacher-Masoch'snovels. Unlike Freud, Deleuze differentiates sadism killer (Norman Bates in conceptualization of these representations propose that the monstrous child –whetherit is a serial sexuality. offemale repression and dependency, masochism, provoke maternal of the proximity such that structures that perpetuate a relationship of domination and subservience.” inscribed socially “the in embedded couple a constitute Erika and Kohut -frau identity ‘castrating’ ‘revengeful’, ‘bad’, her internalizing and and step-father to of jealousy mother his – killing drama the male figure as its ultimate referent.behavior. mother’s While Norman Bates from him/her from taking a proper place in relation to the Symbolic. mother’ isacastrating figure, who refuses torelease her child, denies his/her autonomy, and prevents Hitchcock’s Alfred in Creed Barbara by Kohutfrau in relation to Erika reveals the ofclassical model themonstrous-feminine isexplored that into pathogenic mother/daughter bondin the absence of the father figure. Authoritarian behavior of discovering the constraints which influenced mothers’ the lives. second-wave feminism, and moved from desire of separation to a dialogue across generations, Gilles Deleuze discusses the nature of masochism in his book The problem with this psychic scheme lies in its gender imbalance typical of psychoanalysis with ofpsychoanalysis typical imbalance gender its in lies scheme psychic this with problem The 85 86 Klavierspielerin.” 84 No. 1, p. 50. 83 82 In Ibid. Deleuze, Gilles. 1991. Abjection,” Imaginary An Monstrous-Feminine: the and “Horror 1986. Barbara. Creed, Ibid, 218. Barbara.Kosta,“InscribingMother-Daughter1994. Erika: ElfriedeBond/ageJelinek's"Die in The Piano Teacher 85 Monatshefte, , as well as in Psycho Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty & Venus in Furs Vol. 86, No. 2, p. 219. ) or a sexual ‘pervert’ (Erika Kohut) – is always an effect of the Black Swan Psycho 86 locatesFollowing(1984) Deleuze,Gaylyn Studlar (1960) and defined as ‘archaic mother’. The ‘archaic The mother’. ‘archaic as defined and (1960) , female identity formation is represented as rooted as represented is formation identity female , 29 82 Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty Psycho , New York: Zone Books. 83 I te wrs social words, other In 84 suggests narrative The experiences an Oedipal Screen, Vol. 27, CEU eTD Collection relationships of dependency which throttles them into the situation we might call masochistic masochist desire for submission, object-relation theory also howshows women develop the in relationship daughter/lover and mother/daughter the investigating in helpful be may Deleuze, by developed and the patriarchal assumptions implicit for psychoanalysis in general, in psychoanalysis for implicit assumptions patriarchal the and conditions of existence since the beginning of 20 material and social shifted of ground the on least very the at challenged critically be should and ‘positive’ Oedipal complexwhen they learn and passivity submission. Such vision, of course, can argues orthodox Freudism,masochism notis long perversive, as as for girlsit is an outcome of mother takes theplace of that who asa beats result ofrepression of homosexual choice. neutral super-ego as a‘law of the father’. The masochist super-ego becomes sexualized and the characterized by abandoning motherthe a first as object-cathex and the introjection of the sexually emerges asa result of negative Oedipal complex. While for him positive Oedipal complex inboys is submission. Moreover,Freud describesmasochism as aspecifically male form of perversion, which a woman (the mother”“oral masochism, Studlar asserts that: pleasure pleasure from suspension and symbolic bond. In addition to Deleuze’s emphasis on the pre-Oedipal bond with mother the in the shaping of Still, Deleuze’s discussion of masochism applies only to men as far as in Zacher-Masoch’s novels University. 91 Constance Penley and Sharon Willis, Univ Of Minnesota Press. mother). Oral mother is a 'good' nurturing mother, with whom subject seeks unity. 89 88 Antology, 87 90 See Culler, Jonathan. 1983. Oral mother is one of three 'primitive' mothers (alongside withuterine, or punishing, mother, and oedipal Ibid, 609. Studlar, Gaylyn. 1985. “Masochism and the Perverse Pleasures of Cinema,” in Silverman, Kaja. 1993. “Masochism and Male Subjectivity,” in Subjectivity,” Male and “Masochism 1993. Kaja. Silverman, the alliance of mother and child. and ofmother alliance the threatens who father of the force ‘normalizing’ the than attraction astronger as mother Oedipal pre- of the power compelling the affirms that desire a“subversive” is masochism sexuality, genital into progress and complex, castration the taboo, incest ofthe demands the Overriding Volume II, ed. by Bill Nichols, Univeresity of California Press: Berkley and Los Angeles. The Piano Teacher. 89 On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism ) is always dominator the cold and a man one is the who seeks 88 87 Analyzing the paradoxical pain/pleasure structure of th century, when Freud was conducting his research, his conducting was Freud when century, 30 Male Trouble (Camera Obscura), 91 model,althoughfurther this Movies and Methods: An , Ithaca: Cornell 90 For girls, For ed. by CEU eTD Collection and in her carrer the means for social mobility. Kosta assumes that the failed separation of the separation failed the that assumes Kosta mobility. social for means the carrer her in and roles. The socially oppressed, properly ‘castrated’ mother finds in her daughter thematerial provider scene of incestual manifestation of desire after Walter Klemmen rejects Erika. paradoxically experiences theneed for pre-Oedipal intimacy with the mother,as we see it in the subject of music, and by stealing for herself the scraps of forbidden, ‘dirty’ pleasure. Still, she taking the mask of afirm and uncompromising professional when the conversation turns to the control in her life by reproducing the situation of domination/subordination with her students, by from individuation and assertion herself as asubject. Erika fights for gaining maturity and seizing Erika prevents control maternal of matrix The structure. family the within parties two the between “unnaturally prolonged symbiosis between mother and daughter” delinquent teenage girl. From the very beginning of the film this scene draws attention to the her adolescence in gesturesderivative of the reproduction function of awoman. and lyingunderlines her belonging to the patriarchal tradition of using husband’sthe last name,or ‘Mother’, a to the mothermaternal about function why careis emphasized she’sand takes her beenby advantage the absencelate in control ofat a first home,over thename: daughterlike she isand a either denies ‘frauher separation. Kohut’, whichHer primarily Deleuzian oral mother” oral Deleuzian yield. ever could bond emotional no strong and denied was autonomy daughter’s the encouraged, been has societies Western of structures social the of separation and individualization. She claims that while malethe child’s right for independence in bondage. Nancy Chodorow discusses the gender-specific effectsof subjectivity shaping effectas an The ‘pathological (-gized)’ symbiosisof mother and daughter also informs the inversion of gender exposing mother, her with lives she where flat the into rushes who Erika see we scene first the In In 94 1978. Society 92 Klavierspielerin,” 93 of California. Ibid., p. 220. Kosta, Barbara. 1994. “Inscribing Erika: Mother-Daughter Bond/age in Elfriede Jelinek's "Die See Chodorow, Nancy. 1974 “Family Structure and Feminine Personality,” In Personality,” Feminine and Structure “Family 1974 Nancy. Chodorow, See The Piano Teacher The Reproduction ofMothering: Psychoanalysis and the SociologyofGender , ed. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Luise Lamphere. Palo Alto: Stanford UP. Chodorow, Nancy. Chodorow, UP. Stanford Alto: Palo Lamphere. Luise and Rosaldo Zimbalist Michelle , ed. Monatshefte, 93 who nourishes the daughter, but at the same time makes her indebted for the the mother takes a central place as a caretaker and the “replica of the Vol. 86, No. 2., p. 220. 92 31 94 imbalance powerdefines that . Berkeley: University Women, Culture and CEU eTD Collection escape the conclusion that ‘her own’ sexuality is defined in termsof heterosexual relationship. she practices are connoted wewith know activities that Erika as hasthe sexualopposite desires to ‘normal’ and lives female a sexual sexuality. life, just It is the hard means to of sexual gratification her own possibilities. professional and educational emancipating the and mother) her by (exemplified order patriarchal traditional the in-between becaught to appears Erika victim, and monster castrated, and phallic Both more. even her abjectifies empowered subject. On the contrary, in view of her submission to the mother,her voyeurism only Erika’sdesire. her of oddity the voyeuristic reveals explicitly presence her to reaction their and standards) moral class middle- by habitstolerated not though acceptable, culturally be to considered is of pleasure kind putsuch whom her (for men in with line in waits Erika cabin, theseparate a in pornography watch to positionticket a buying When of the malemale pleasure. I already mentioned the ambiguity of masochism concerning female subjectivity. gaze, but they do room. her in not themselves barricade Walter and make Erika when temper her loses and her, approached her an daughter,the mothermaniacally ‘protects’ her from male attention, asks whether someone dependent on herevents mother in andthe a mother’shusbandapartment and rigorously controls her daughter’s spending. Not only does Erika appearin public whocompany, sleepsprofessionalism. she beside also hisshares wife. And bedthe Led withmother by theher, has fearbothher own toas loseinterestif sheher were in Erika’sa small success:child she plans to buy a new without social recognition.” like that of the generations the within particularly mother culture, Austrian middle-class white, traditional “Within mother: in a as exclusively woman situate historically that dependencies of network the in is rooted daughter Erika’s sexual desires constitute one more problematic issue. Kosta suggests that,“Erika isdenied It is also notable that the ‘perversions’ attributed to Erika are ones that are usually associated with 96 Klavierspielerin,” 95 Ibid, p. 224. Kosta, Barbara. 1994. “Inscribing Erika: Mother-Daughter Bond/age in Elfriede Jelinek's "Die sexuality because it represents a process of maturation and separation.” and maturation of process a represents it because sexuality Monatshefte, Die Klavierspielerin 95 On the other hand, Erika’s social status is secured by her talent and Vol. 86, No. 2, p. 223. , the mother iseconomically powerless, isolated and 32 96 But from the film CEU eTD Collection heterosexuality. All of Erika’s perversions stem from the pre-Oedipalmother/daughter bond/age. As causes her perversion, it is implied that the guarantee of the female subject’s autonomy is pornography. Inasmuch Erika is also represented as dependenton hermother and immature,which is considered that Sexuality sexuality. ‘normal’of female distinction ‘abnormal’ and ‘normal’ the up sets orbody abject ‘healthy’Erika’s is opposite to voyeurism,construction of such monstrous-feminine herare body implicated in ‘perverse’ sexuality. Through the pleasure fromrejection facilitates herpain, construction as amonster, butmore importantly for us, the meansand of interest in disgust, and the characterwatch’. The explicit representation of painon the screen invokes bodily reaction of shock and (Erika) is moment when rejectedErika wounds herself, the identification is interrupted and the viewer literally ‘cannot by the viewerstage, first on with mirror thea camera Lacanian the repeats which ‘bodily’as theidentification, main‘double’ and processes cinematographic unconscious to connected level, medium and sothen withto a character,speak. then at Thethe ejected. be to has that of abject signs appetizing’. For Julia Kristeva and Barbara Creed blood and specifically menstrual blood, are the that of blood stream the seeing drains mother, the and a dinner for room living the enters she when strengthens downmanipulation leaves nodoubt that she hurts herself, imposing the feeling of disgust. It even her leg,but a stream of blood thatflows down the bath from the direction of her genitalia in a second after misrecognizeshand and a blade in the other. She sits sideward, so we don’t see what exactly she does with the blade exceptionally eloquent. We seeit Erika sitting in a robeas on the edge of therepresentation bath,menstrualof violence and self-mutilation. In thisholding context the in scene the bathroom is a mirror in one identification. Cinematically the impression of Erika’s‘abnormality’ is created as a result of blood, admitting that ‘it’s not very Columbia University Press, p. 1. If we accept the claim of Cristopher Metz’s apparatus theory that the viewing of the film is Cinema as a medium that appeals to visual perception engages the viewer in the process of 97 1982.Julia.Kristeva, Powers ofHorror: An Essay on Abjection 97 33 , trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: CEU eTD Collection traditional role as primary caretaker both contribute to Erika's dysfunctional development”. dysfunctional toErika's contribute both caretaker primary as role traditional Kosta noticed, “The narrative implies that the absent father within the nuclearfamily and the mother's masochist scenario of sexual relationship, inwhich he is assigned a domineering Theirpart. first bourgeois ‘normality’ and idealthe of romantic love. Itisnot surprising that he rejects Erika’s identification figure. Hismanners, talent, charm, and ‘natural’ heterosexual desire are embodimentof ‘save’ the woman from potentially dangerousmother/daughter, or woman/woman bond. bond as such, demanding the interference of the party’‘third (whether itis afather ora male lover) to ‘guarantee of social order’ and a bourgeois model of nuclearfamily but also pathologizes afemale incrimination of motherhood as acultural danger whichprevents the child to gain subjectivity? exposure of cultural structuring ‘otherness’ and (heterosexual) femininity. In this structure the father‘difference’, represents a ‘agency’,‘excitement’, guarantee the daughter’s successful entrance into the Symbolic by her acceptance of ‘proper’ claustrophobic bond of two women in absence of thefather figure isculturallythat anticipated to in Nina concerning 3 Chapter in analyzed the ‘negative Oedipal complex’ in girls and the ‘normalizing’ power of the paternal signifier,which I to ask: whether themother/daughter bond/age, represented in entitled weare here So, regime. patriarchal of the outcomes historical the not and constants cultural tradition, stasis, backwardness, and father embodies mobility, freedom, and agency, as if they were Klavierspielerin,” 100 New York: Pantheon Books, p.125. 99 Klavierspielerin,” 98 At first sight Walter4.3. Thereverseofbourgeois‘normality’ Klemmen, Erika’s student who falls in love with her, is the most appealing Such logic not only privileges andre-affirms thedominant position of the father figure as a The absence of the fathera ‘third as in party’ the Kohutfamily returns usto the discussion about Jessica Benjamin. 1988. Kosta, Barbara. 1994. “Inscribing Erika: Mother-Daughter Bond/age in Elfriede Jelinek's "Die Kosta, Barbara. 1994. “Inscribing Erika: Mother-Daughter Bond/age in Elfriede Jelinek's "Die 99 but it only confirms the patriarchal archetype that mother is associated with associated is mother that archetype patriarchal the confirms only it but Monatshefte, Monatshefte, The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and the Problems of Domination Vol. 86, No. 2., p. 231. Vol. 86, No. 2., p. 225. 100 or a continuation of long-lasting (at least since Freud’s works) Freud’s since least (at long-lasting of continuation a or Black Swan 34 . Erika’s ‘deformed desires’ stem from the The Piano Teacher , is a critical a is , 98 , CEU eTD Collection masochist contract where she reveals her desire for victimhood,which exposesher pre-Oedipal his/her own suffering, s/he is in control of pleasure.prescriptions. aslong Thus, as themasochist is always theone who dramaticinvents the scenario of The letter Erikaand rules, sends instructions, detailed to through Walter partners the between is submission a and replicadomination of a production of pleasure through text.” inscribed in the aesthetics whichwill write a letter to isWalter where she will orchestrateddescribe what and how she can do with her. of the perversion's psychosexual dynamics.” on “the arena ofexplains that “masochismartistic contains atemporal paradox of anticipation and suspense that is at the heart form, understanding language,of masochist pleasure as postponement and finally disavowal, and theconsummation indicatesmasochistic desire controling pleasure. Drawing on a Deleuzian of Walter’s postponement Her ofagency. sign any reveal or move to him forbids She penis. Walter, taking the position of control by demanding Walter’sobedience while she masturbates his with relations her into relations power mother/daughter of asymmetry the transfers Erika situation. ‘perverse’ inclinations. Erika rejects his attempts to seduce her and imposesher control over the sexual encounter takes place in a public lavatory of the conservatoire, where Erika first reveals her Walter) know who she really ‘is’ – a pervertwho does not deserve love but only humiliation and heterosexual pleasure and deprives Walter of it. and punched,in the position of executor but of her fantasy. Sheit with describesWalter in her fantasized scenario she defines the rules of the pain/pleasure game and isleaveshimin detail how noticeableexactly she wants to befixation and almostbeaten mirrors her domination/subordination relationship with mother.Almost, because that coitus itself is absent in the scenario – Erika negates Woman,” 102 30. According to Deleuze, masochist pleasure is formalized and defined by a strict order, it is Oxford University Press, p. 774. Criticism: Introductory Readings, ed. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen, andLeo Braudy,ed., Oxford: 4th 103 101 When Walter reads out Erika’s letter in her room, it sounds like a disclosure – now we (and Studlar, Gaylyn. 1994. “Masochistic Performance and Female Subjectivity in "Letter from anUnknown from "Letter in Subjectivity Female and Performance “Masochistic 1994. Gaylyn. Studlar, Deleuze, Gilles. 1991. Studlar, Gaylin. 1985. “Masochism and the perverse pleasure of the cinema,” in cinema,” of the pleasure perverse the and “Masochism 1985. Gaylin. Studlar, Cinema Journal, Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty & Venus in Furs Vol. 33, No. 3, p. 44. 103 The masochist contract establishes the dialectical relationsof 102 Erikaprolongs this anticipation by declaring thatshe 35 , Zone Books: New York., p. 101 Film Theory and Gaylyn Studlar CEU eTD Collection body is violated and Walter’s satisfaction is also ambiguous as long as it is accompanied with shame with accompanied is it as long as ambiguous also is satisfaction Walter’s and violated is body romantic love is turnedinto the scene of rapebrutal afterwhich no one getswhat onewanted. Erika’s after Erika (as it mayplay anygames, butyouhave to leave something for me,” he claims the right togetwhat hewantsseem) has got whatis obvious after he re-establishes masculinehis position in raping WithErika. hisshe comment “Ican wanted. The heterosexualfact that he rather punishesher the for ‘dirtiness’ and humiliating passivity in which she involved him contact as an attribute suffering. and ofhumiliation hits her inthe face and stomach and doesn’t stop when she asks, taking visible sadistic pleasure in her attention to her screams cites lines from Erika’sdesire expressed in letter.He the locks Erika’sprotestingletter mother inthe room withoutand paying and performs her ‘realizes’ theviolently and night actionsin the apartment her into she breaks he wasaggression, up ‘asking’ building to lead for: Erika. from distancing and disgust Walter’s with in identification comfort fragile finds who noticed Wood as you?”, Idisgust “Do question Erika’s ‘normality’. presumable his offends her he desired that realization The negation. She is not the object of admiration for Walter any more, she is a ‘sick’ abjected monster. etiquette “conformity to dominant norms of the culture” aggression undermines theviewer’s belief in ‘normality’ showingits outward conventionality, almost which he represses by blaming Erika with his spontaneous ‘abnormality’. Walter’s explicit Walter’s resentment and wounded masculinity (he says to Erika: “You cannot do it to aman” to it do cannot “You Erika: to says (he masculinity wounded and resentment Walter’s 106 teacher-la-pianiste-cd-1-eng-2-5-fps-2001/260605/#captcha> [Accessed 31May 2012] 105 a094843210> [Accessed 17 May 2012] [Accessed 17May 2012] [Accessed: 25May 2012] In the last chapter of my thesis I turn my attention to the film of Cinema?” of 110 5. Mad embodiment andmonstrosity ofdifference in Braidotti, R. 1994. See, for example, Brooks, Xan. 2009. “Antichrist: A Work of Genius or the Sickest Film in the History to show how the production of sexual differences inside the symbolic assigns certain position The Guardian. The Nomadic Subjects. [online] Availiable at: [Accessed 25May 2012 In his interviews on interviews In his 5.1. Woman and Madness in Antichrist MVTzsAw&sig2=Gv4ejx52AhuR3pC1yq_mxg. [Accessed 23May 2012] shrink.html&ei=BDvCT6i_AsrHswaMlYjdCg&usg=AFQjCNGD0DTPuLVS_KGC48f5Y9- man-horrible-misogynistic-film-needs- A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Ftvshowbiz%2Freviews%2Farticle-1201803%2FANTICHRIST-The- (Accessed 115 antichrist/news/1833302/rt_interview_lars_von_trier_on_antichrist/> [Accessed 24May 2012] Availiable at: [Accessed 27May 2012] Availiable at: [Accessed 27May 2012] at: Feature 111 Availiable [online] Tookey,Chris. 2009. “Antichrist: The man who made this horrible, misogynistic film needs to see a Ebert, Roger. 2009. “Cannes #6: A devil's advocate for"Antichrist"," Ebert, Roger. 2011. “Lars von Trier and the Antichrist,” on Trier von Lars Women': Hate Don't "'I 2009. Luke. Goodsell, 2009.discontents". Scott. its Macaulay,and "CivilizationFilmmaker CA: Angeles, (Los Independent Crocker, Jonathan. 2009. “RT Interview: Lars von Trier on Trier von Lars Interview: “RT 2009. Jonathan. Crocker, 116 and exploitative, producing the doubleeffect of disgust and boredom.viewer-torturing This Daily Mail Antichrist von Trier claims that his first intention was to create a film in the genre . [online] Availiable at: Grief 115 . For others such form of expression seemed “needlessly seemed ofexpression others suchform For . and Pain (Chaos Reigns) 40 However,the employment of tropes of explicit Chicago Sun-Times Antichrist Antichrist, Chicago Sun-Times chapters), which is unlikely for unlikely is which chapters), .” . [online] Availiable at: " Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes . [online] 111 114 director The . [online] [online] containing 113 made 112 , CEU eTD Collection reaction that uncovers the pressure points of contemporary Western society, which is of no less no of is which society, Western contemporary of points pressure the uncovers that reaction tradition.cultural that in unconscious’ ‘collective the for Even aggravator an like works it that argue even may One considered it. to connected fears and culture Western in offemininity asfiction dominant the a undergird that provocation,meanings a derisivemodernist position the post- quirk Barth’s From meaning. onits truth ultimate of possessor a sole as of author the to belong doesn’t eccentric nature,centres ofculture” the film induceswriting.” the interpretation to it “is to impose a limiton that text, to furnish itwith a final signified, to close the asingle assign thereby and Author” an text a give “to Author” ofthe Death “The in established long to the modernistback us bring beliefmerely would That meaning. of source the as in state) mental the biography, author’s views, political his creative force and authority upon the text. As Roland Barthesresponse hasto their child’s death in the accident (a boy falls out of the in window). insanity alleged wife’s his by posed life orderly an to threat the byeliminating Nature dangerous pleasure or at least relative comfort till the last scene. Here the main male character ‘comes to terms’ with film as strongly influenced by von Trier’s own long-lasting depression. The Dark earned himself an unenviable reputation for misogyny through importance than the film itself. However, I did not refer the reader to the director’s statements to acknowledge director’s intention (or intention director’s acknowledge to statements director’s the to reader the refer not I did However, MVTzsAw&sig2=Gv4ejx52AhuR3pC1yq_mxg. [Accessed 23May 2012] shrink.html&ei=BDvCT6i_AsrHswaMlYjdCg&usg=AFQjCNGD0DTPuLVS_KGC48f5Y9- man-horrible-misogynistic-film-needs- A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Ftvshowbiz%2Freviews%2Farticle-1201803%2FANTICHRIST-The- [Accessed: 25May 2012] Guardian. 117 had Trier “von that announced Tookey Chris misogyny. its for film the disliked of critics majority The Tookey, Chris. 2009. “Antichrist: The man who made this horrible, misogynistic film needs to see Ibid, 146.a In Author,” of the Death “The 1977. Roland. Barthes, Brooks, Xan. 2009. “Antichrist: A Work of Genius or the Sickest Film in the History of Cinema?” 118 Daily Mail Instead he advocates to see the text as a “tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable (2000) [online] Availiable at: [Accessed 25May 2012] Despite the scene where the woman passingly observes that “Freud is dead”, this explicit claim 122 In articulation “the is psychoanalysis in of castration” “function the Heath, Stephen to According Thus, . Ibid., p. 49. Heath, Stephen. 1992. “Difference” in Rose, Jackueline. 2005. Ebert, Roger. 2011. “Lars von Trier and the Antichrist,” Antichrist the woman, distraught fromher sorrow, becomes apatient ofher husband who makes an Antichrist ) as one of the most fundamental laws of “human nature”. Sexuality in the Field of Vision 124 Constructed womanthrough lack, as absence ofmasculine presence (of The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality 122 , except Reason and Faith (or madness, depression, mental depression, madness, (or Faith and Reason except , 43 , Verso: London, New York, p. 7. Chicago Sun-Times . [online] Availiable at: , Routledge: 123 not I nowwill 125 For Lacan Black have CEU eTD Collection organizes the world around the categories of Truth, Being, Origin, God and establishes their hierarchical their establishes and God Origin, Being, Truth, of categories the around world the organizes valorizing the category ofpresence. through developed has tradition philosophical Western how explore to metaphysics of Western paradigm general a as of ‘logocentrism’ notion Derridean on the draws Irigaray Luce discourse, psychoanalytical discourse” theoretical helpless role assigned to the women as such” “part of female conditioning, ideologically inherent in the behavior pattern and in dependentthe and the only not is women in behavior help-needing and help-seeking defined socially that argues Felman roles ofmother/daughter/wife and considers thedeviations from establishedthe norm as ‘madness’. patriarchal culture which extorts women to comply to socially expected stereotypes of female gender interchangeably. less or more taken are ‘hysterical’ and ‘feminine’ practice analytical in contemporary that out population would predict, are involved in 'careers' aspsychiatric patients” Madness conceived as an exclusively female complaint long was hysteria that out points Felman Shoshana understanding. reasoned to resistant continent’, ‘dark constructed as subordinate to masculinity, woman is perceived as his opposite, difference, other. difference, opposite, his as perceived is woman masculinity, to subordinate as constructed subordinated to the ‘positive’ one, asarule of differentiation as such. Irigaray claims that theoretically Masculine/Feminine) the second element of the binary is attributed ‘negative’ value and so becomes Identity/Difference, Presence/Absence, Being/Nothing, (Truth/Error, binary the inside authority to other elements of the same ontological system. 133 131 130 132 129 51. London,. 127 128 126 and philosophical ofWestern deconstruction and questioning of radical attempt feminist her In Irigaray, Luce. 1985. Irigaray, Luce. 1985. Ibid, p. 3. Felman, Shoshana. 1975. “Women and Madness: The Critical Phallacy,” Felman, Shoshana. 1975. “Women and Madness: The Critical Phallacy,” Chesler, Phyllis. 1973. Heath, Stephen. 1992. “Difference” in Felman, Shoshana. 1975. “Women and Madness: The Critical Phallacy,” (1972): “Women more men,than in and greater numbers existence than their in generalthe 128 oppressive ‘femaleconditioned the isChesler psychology’thatalso argues by 130 – including psychoanalysis. including – Speculum of the Other Woman, Speculum of the Other Woman, Women andMadness, 131 In themetaphysicalpresence beginning tradition, Plato, from The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality 129 New York: Avon Books, p.xxii. 126 , “but rather the very statusof womanhood in Western book Chesler’sfrom Phyllis and cites 44 Cornell University Press. University Cornell Cornell University Press. University Cornell 132 Through the mechanism of hierarchization of mechanism the Through Diacritics, Diacritics, Diacritics, 127 . Stephen Heath also points also Heath Stephen . Vol 5, No 4, p. 3. Vol 5, No 4, p. 2-3. Vol 5, No 4, p. 2. , Routledge: Women and 133 CEU eTD Collection authority as it is through language and speech the psychoanalytic ‘talking cure’ itself can be performed. be can itself cure’ ‘talking psychoanalytic the speech and language through is it as authority and of control instrument his fact actual in are Words obsession. emotional from wife his curing for realm. words’ of ‘nature the to relation in negatively positioned woman is positioned as lack according to the symbolic order (i.e. the orderConstructed of language), sheas islack inevitably in relation to the phallus, psychoanalyticwoman theory as long as she designatedis a “specific function in the order.” symbolic is positioned as negative in the Symbolic logic of the realm.Symbolic that functions in relation to sexuality,woman must be distinguished Iffrom man in relation to the Other as a cite of distribution-circulation of the signifiers.According to differentiating in language.” the symbolic, and in a structure of desire, the representation, the implicationsubject is taken up as such in an interminable movement of signifier,the process of of the subject’s experience of division,understanding of sexual difference writes:Heath “Caused in language, which isdivision and of lack, ‘feminine’. as rendered be to comes and sanity to opposition dichotomous its in considered reason, to subjected is madness binary, the of organization hierarchical of logic same the to According stressing atmosphere the woman is working in. Finally the husband findsher notebook. Ashe thumbs hanging on the walls. The dark images of physical violence and pictures of demonic creatures reflect the where he finds numerous pictures oftortured women of gynocide (her primary data for the thesis) indicative. most is dissertation her for materials woman’s resistant toher husband’s attemptsto ‘fix’ her.In regard this the scene inwhich theman finds the and the body the excess to regressing itself, law and words of short falls disorder mental ofdeepening her in woman The sexuality it brings along with it. Her regression is so strong that she seems highly 137 136 135 London, 57. For Lacan the subject is constituted in symbolic in relation to sexuality. 134 After yet another unsuccessful session of psychological treatment, theman climbs upto the attic In Ibid, 57. Ibid, 57. Ibid, 57. Heath, Stephen. 1992. “Difference” in Antichrist 135 the man/husband/psychotherapist is the agent of the symbolic order: he posses the words The subject is produced as a result of structuring of desire in language through the The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality 45 137 failing self-representation inthesymbolic 134 In his account of Lacan’s of account his In , Routledge: 136 CEU eTD Collection another psychoanalytic session to ask what she thinks about human nature. Their dialogue goes like this: like goes dialogue Their nature. human about thinks she what ask to session psychoanalytic another questionable. academic researchbecause, as she tells her husband,delivers the researchgynocide she comes has to (mis)believe that femininity isinherently evillost inits ‘nature’ and stops writing its sense onlyor even turned to bean lies. the pretextEngagement (if not amainidentity cause) of her mental illness. It is through her absorption into the topic of in crisiscreative activity of knowledge production. However,her academic activity functions in the narrative as and her ratherposition implied into thebe the symbolicreason forexpressive of her failure to signify and ongoing regression from the symbolic.herorder deterioration. becomesthrough to the end he notices that her writing becomes broken and eventually turns into illegible doodles, She is an academic, involved in the critical and at face value, immersing into oblivion of aberration. She is positioned as the Other of reason. Other the as positioned is She of aberration. oblivion into immersing value, face at reason and scientific facts, while the woman at some point losesher critical ability and takeseverything to opposite everything and emotions, prejudice, from himself distance to analyze, and criticize to ability women.” of evil of the At the same, the female character is constructed as being rooted in the symbolic though her position is rama.com/movie_scripts/a/antichrist-script-transcript-chaos-reigns.html> [Accessed 27May 2012] 140 rama.com/movie_scripts/a/antichrist-script-transcript-chaos-reigns.html> [Accessed 27May 2012] 139 is explicitly represented by dreadful demonic images of ‘evil witches’. opinionit symbolizes man’s experience of self-analysis and facing his ownunconscious fears of femininity that 138 proof “as literature the taking for and material primary her to uncritical being for her attacks man The The husband, having found new ‘evidence’ ofpossible reasons for the wife’s madness,conducts It is worth mentioning that Ebert (2010) suggests a different interpretationof scenethe in the attic. In his Woman: The nature of all the sisters. Women do not control their own bodies - nature does. - nature bodies own their control not do Women sisters. the of all nature The Woman: nature? Female women? Ofthe Husband: goes as well... forthe nature of... Woman:I discovered something … inmy material thanI expected. Ifhuman nature thenis evil, that Dialogue [Accessed 27May 2012] Availiable at: [Accessed: 25May 2012] Guardian. 152 p. 298. Such construction of female sexuality as monstrous, abnegated through madness and (indirect) and madness through abnegated monstrous, as sexuality offemale construction Such 151 Brooks, Xan. 2009. “Antichrist: A Work of Genius or the Sickest Film in the History of Cinema?” Clover, Carol J. 2000. “HerBody, Himself,” in illustrates a‘return of the repressed’, amisogynist backlash thatcrosses out the achievements [online] Availiable at: [Accessed: 25May 2012] Guardian. 153 Brooks, Xan. 2009. “Antichrist: A Work of Genius or the Sickest Film in the History of Cinema?” [online] Availiable at: ______1978. UP. Stanford Culture andSociety Nancy.Chodorow, 1974“Family and FeminineStructure Personality,” In Film, Princeton University Press. Clover, Carol Sociology ofGender J. 1992. Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Cinema?” Xan.Brooks, 2009.“Antichrist:A Work of Genius or Sickestthe Film in History the of Braidotti, R.1994. of Domination Benjamin, Jessica.1988. Press. Fontana Heath. andBarthes Stephen Althusser,Louis. 1971. May 2012] 27 [Accessed rama.com/movie_scripts/a/antichrist-script-transcript-chaos-reigns.html> Antichrist– ScriptDialogue [online] Transcript. Availiable Calhoun,“Black 2010. Dave. Swan,” [online] Availiable at: In Author,” “Theof the Roland.1977. Death Barthes, Brewster, New York: Monthly Review Press, . . New York: Pantheon Books. The Guardian. Nomadic Subjects. . Berkeley: University of California. , ed. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Luise Lamphere. Palo Alto: The Philosophy ofHorror: Or, Paradoxes oftheHeart, Women andMadness. The BondsofLove:Psychoanalysis, Feminism and theProblems Lenin andPhilosophy and OtherEssays, The Reproduction of Mothering:Psychoanalysis andthe Feminist Film Theorists:LauraMulvey, KayaSilverman, London:Routledge. New York: Columbia University Press. [online] Availiable at: Availiable [online] 56 NewYork:Avon Books. The Horror Reader Image, Music, Text Music, Image, translated by Ben . London and New and London . ed.by Roland London: Women, CEU eTD Collection Freeland, Cynthia. 2000. 5, No 4. History of Horror Film. Horror of History Crane, Jonathan Crane,Lake. 1994. Jonathan Ken Gelder. London and New York: Routledge. Felman,“Women Shoshana.1975. and Madness: TheCritical Phallacy,” [Accessed 25May2012] Availiable at: Zone Books. Boulder,CO: Westview. Crocker, Jonathan.Crocker, “RT 2009. Interview: Larsvon Trier on ______2000.“Kristeva, Femininity, Abjection,” In Routledge.and New-York: ______1993. Screen, 1986. andCreed, Barbara. “Horror AnImaginary Monstrous-Feminine: the Abjection”. Books Ltd. ______1990.“The Uncanny,” In 5 May 2012] [Accessed ______1933. Illusion, Civilizationandits Discontents, and Other Works, Psychological Works ofSigmundFreud, Volume XXI (1927-1931): The Future of an 1931. Sygmund. Freud, Sexuality,” “Female ______2011.“Lars von Trier and Antichrist,” the (Accessed 27May2012) at: Availiable [online] Roger.Ebert, 2009.“Cannesfor #6:A "Antichrist","devil's advocate Culler, Jonathan. 1983. 2012] antichrist/news/1833302/rt_interview_lars_von_trier_on_antichrist/> [Accessed 24May [online] Availiable Representation andDifference) Elisabeth.1994. Grosz, 27 May 2012] antichrist/news/1856901/i_dont_hate_women_lars_von_trier_on_antichrist/> [Accessed Tomatoes 2009. Luke. Goodsell, on TrierLars von Women':Hate Don't"'I In Teacher).” Piano (The LaPianiste Refrains: ViolentDesires, “Discordant Ma, Jean.2010. Wiksell. & Leffler, Yvonne.2000. Klavierspielerin.” "Die in Bond/age Barbara.1994.“Inscribing Jelinek's Kosta, Erika:Elfriede Mother-Daughter Press. University Columbia York: New 1982. Kristeva, Julia. Cinema Claire.Johnston, “Women’s CinemaasCounter-Cinema.” 1973. In Kirk.Honeycutt, 2010. “Difference,” Stephen.In Heath, 1992. Questions. Class, The Big GenderandSexuality: ______1998.“Refiguring Lesbian Desire.” InNaomi Zack etal (eds.) Hoberman, J.2002.“Prisoner’s Songs,” Hills, Matt. 2005. London: Routledge. film/0213,hoberman,33363,20.html> [Accessed 17May 2012] [Accessed Availiable at: 17May 2012] Sharrett, Christopher. 2004. “The Horror of the Middle Class”, Rose, Jackueline.Rose, 2005. York: W W Norton & Company. Rich, Adrienne. 1995. London: Routledge. "Screen" ReaderinSexuality, Screen ReaderinSexuality:A Mulvey,“Visual Laura.1992. Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In 5May > [Accessed content/uploads/2011/08/mortimermpaper.pdf 2012] Lack.” [online]Availiable at: [Accessed 27May Cambridge University pp.17–34.Press, Psychoanalysis: Freud’sWorst Nightmare PsychoanalyticUrbano, Cosimo. 2004. “’What’s the MatterCultural Studies, with Melanie?’ Andrew.“WhyTudor, 1997. The Horror? Peculiar PleasuresReflectionsa Popular of Genre,” on the Merits of Y9-MVTzsAw&sig2=Gv4ejx52AhuR3pC1yq_mxg. [Accessed 23May 2012] shrink.html&ei=BDvCT6i_AsrHswaMlYjdCg&usg=AFQjCNGD0DTPuLVS_KGC48f5 Approaches-1201803%2FANTICHRIST-The-man-horrible-misogynistic-film-needs- FjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Ftvshowbiz%2Freviews%2Farticle [AccessedPianiste.-a094843210> 17May 2012]