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From the Law of the Father to the Ethics of Care: Reimagining the Family, the Church and the Police in the Films of Pedro Almodóvar

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From the Law of the Father to the Ethics of Care: Reimagining the Family, the Church and the Police in the Films of Pedro Almodóvar From the Law of the Father to the Ethics of Care: Reimagining the Family, the Church and the Police in the Films of Pedro Almodóvar Meribah Ruth Rose ORCID 0000-0002-1331-7301 Doctor of Philosophy February 2018 The School of Languages and Linguistics, the Faculty of Arts This thesis is submitted in total fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Abstract Having made twenty feature films since his punk-inflected debut, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón (1980), Pedro Almodóvar is, internationally, the best- known contemporary Spanish director. His filmography defies simple characterisation, although many have commented on his subversion of gender, genre and traditional markers of Spanish identity. This PhD thesis draws on such discussions, but makes an important contribution to the scholarship by reorienting the focus from the individual to the community. I analyse the representations of three institutions across this corpus: the family, the Church, and the law. Not only is each a regular motif of Almodóvar’s work, they share a nexus to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, who co-opted them to maintain his regime’s ideological authority. Tracing the ways in which Almodóvar both deconstructs and reimagines these institutions, I explore the extent to which his films suggest that a postmodern aesthetic can give rise to a meaningful ethic. Whilst the director’s transgressive attitude to established social order is refracted throughout his films, for instance in their labyrinthine narratives and genre hybridity, I conclude that he puts forward an ethical framework for community in the democratic era. Given the diversity of Almodóvar’s works, this thesis draws on a range of conceptual tools. In particular, I adopt the analytical frames offered by feminist and queer understandings of time and space. These conceptual tools foreground different modes of experiencing the world, and allow me to highlight the ways in which Almodóvar’s alternative temporalities and privileging of feminine spaces contribute to his deconstruction of conventional institutions and gender hierarchies. These concepts offer an innovative methodology for approaching these films and allow me to chart ruptures and continuities in the representations of the family, the Church and the law. My research provides not only a comprehensive analysis of the three institutions side-by-side, thus far missing from the literature, but contributes to an understanding of the primacy of community in Almodóvar’s corpus. Whilst these films catalogue various ways in which the family, the Church and the law i repress and control individual characters, I propose that the filmmaker nevertheless remains hopeful about alternative social configurations. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the director has certain requirements for meaningful communities, primarily that they be grounded in the “ethics of care”. A feminist approach to morality, the ethics of care is mentioned only briefly in the wide-ranging scholarship on this director. I extend this by further unpacking the ways in which his preferred communities fit within its parameters. This emerges from the ways in which Almodóvar reimagines (or fails to reimagine) each institution considered by this thesis. Each chapter focuses on one of these institutions and I conclude that Almodóvar is most hopeful about the possibility of creating alternative families, whilst the Church and formal agents of the law are less able to be reimagined according to his ethical framework. Ultimately, this thesis offers us new and tangible ways of thinking not only about community in these films, but more generally in our own lives. ii Declaration I declare that this thesis comprises only my original work towards the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and that I have made due acknowledgement in this thesis to all other material used. I also declare that this thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices (as relevant). Meribah Ruth Rose iii Acknowledgements A thesis is in many ways like a child; it takes a village to raise it. I have been very lucky with my village and it would be impossible to individually thank everyone who has contributed to this long, and at times arduous, process. My deepest thanks to my supervisors, for their support, intellectual rigour and insightful feedback. I thank Alfredo Martínez-Expósito for his perceptive and helpful comments on how this project could be strengthened and deepened, as well as his enthusiasm. I thank Lara Anderson for her discerning advice, her friendship, encouragement, and the wonderful professional opportunities she has offered me. Thank you also to Jacqueline Dutton, who has been a great support and sounding board throughout this process. I am grateful to the University of Melbourne and the Government of Australia for the award of an Australian Postgraduate Award (later converted to a Research Training Program Scholarship) and to the Faculty of Arts for the Melbourne Abroad Travel Scholarship. I am also very appreciative of the numerous exciting teaching and research opportunities I have encountered across the Faculties of Arts and Law, which have extended me professionally and personally. My heartfelt gratitude to my three parents and siblings, for their faith in me, proofreading, cheering and counsel. This would not have been possible without you. Thanks also to my nephew Raff and niece Gemma, who both arrived during the thesis and provided a much-needed reminder that there is life outside academia. I look forward to being a better daughter, sister and aunt now that this is over—and to meeting Dwayne, whoever you turn out to be. I very much appreciate my own community of circumstance, which has provided me with much encouragement, support and good company throughout this process. These include Madeleine Roberts, Emily Cheeseman, Belinda Parker and Charlotte Ryan. A special thank you to those who generously read sections of this thesis and made insightful and constructive suggestions—there is no doubt this is a better piece of work thanks to you: including Howard Choo, Lily O’Neill, Claire iv Loughnan. I also benefitted from the extraordinarily generous proofreading expertise of Alice Allan. A special thank you to Jacinthe Flore, who has been a dear friend, colleague, and confidante throughout this endeavour. Your friendship is one of the best things to come out of this! Finally, my deepest thanks and love to Stuart. You have only known me whilst I have been engaged in this Sisyphean task and it has been at times an incredibly needy third wheel in our relationship. I am so excited for us to finally be on our own! v Table of contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................ i Declaration ........................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iv Note regarding translations .................................................................................................. viii Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 A. Revising community in the films of Pedro Almodóvar ..................................................... 1 B. Literature Review: Reading Almodóvar ........................................................................... 8 i. The diversity of Almodóvar studies ................................................................................ 8 ii. The auteur, gender and genre ..................................................................................... 12 iii. Community and ethics ................................................................................................ 18 C. Three key concepts: Time, space and the ethics of care ............................................... 23 i. Time .............................................................................................................................. 23 ii. Space ............................................................................................................................ 27 iii. Ethics of care ............................................................................................................... 30 D. Three communities: The family, the Church and the police .......................................... 34 Chapter One: Mothers and fathers and transgender, oh my! .................................... 38 A. Overview of chapter one ............................................................................................... 38 i. The family in Almodóvar’s films: Context, overview and literature .............................. 40 B. Broken embraces: The failure of the traditional family ................................................. 47 i. Overview ....................................................................................................................... 47 ii. The patriarch: Authoritarian, abusive, absent ............................................................. 48 a. Burying the abusive father ..................................................................................... 48 b. What Antonio did to deserve that ......................................................................... 54 iii. The “bad mother”: Neglectful or
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