Stella dallas and feminist film theory

Ann kaplan represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in boston university libraries. Linda williams focused her studies on the female spectator pleasure by analyzing melodrama classical hollywood films. Williams goes into detail on analyzing the film stella dallas and its feminist criticism. What the main character stella is trying to achieve is to be both a woman and a mother. Christine gledhill on stella dallas and feminist film theory. Linda williams teaches courses on popular movingimage genres pornography, melodrama, and body genres of all sorts. Show full abstract case for many important concepts of recent feminist film theory as well as for feminist thinking about the. King vidors stella dallas is thus used as an interesting test case for many important concepts of recent feminist film theory as well as for feminist thinking about the formation of the female.

Poverty and womens sacrifices in stella dallas 1937 and. Email citation this textbook offers a clear overview of some key debates in feminist film studies, including psychoanalysis and spectatorship, adaptation, and race. This anthology charts the history of those debates, bringing together the key, classic essays in feminist film theory. The melodrama s role in the development of contemporary film theory. The author also used the film stella dallas by king vidor to portray an interesting test case for many essential concepts of feminist film theory and from feminist whom thinks about the formation of the female subject. Beyond cinepsychoanalysis feminism film, show, cinema. Christine gledhill on stella dallas and feminist film theory by christine gledhill e. The feminist film theorists bell hooks and jacqueline bobo augmented this discussion of race and spectatorship by arguing that even more complex readings arise for african american female spectators because of their double exclusion on the grounds of. Gwendolyn audrey foster is willa cather professor of english and film studies at the university of nebraska, lincoln.

In the end, this proves to be impossible as she is stripped of both titles. May 25, 2014 im not versed in the various interpretations, but i found cavells reading of stella dallas very compelling. Feeling for stella dallas film structure jukola art. The hollywood melodrama of the unknown woman 1996, stresses stellas own search for a mother, and her striving to overcome separation. It is a response to feminist film theorist laura mulveys term, the male gaze, which represents not only the gaze of a heterosexual male viewer but also the gaze of the male character and the male creator of the film. Linda williams and stella dallas critical film theory. Interest in 1950s hollywood melodrama arose at a point when the classic. Stella dallas and the maternal melodrama linda williams. She uses the film stella dallas as a test case to support various concepts of feminist s film theory including maternal sacrifice and identification. I think that donna in mamma mia tries to do this, and in contrast is successful in doing so. I made the marriages of laurel dallas, my comparative study of the cinematic build up to two tearjerking momentsone long enshrined, and much argued over, in maternal melodrama studiesshortly after i saw the silent version of stella dallas for the first time. Interest in 1950s hollywood melodrama arose at a point when the classic realist or narrative text was becoming the dominant model for. Dec 12, 20 most of the approaches rely heavily on theories in ways of understanding melodrama.

Considering how strong an emotional appeal this melodrama makes, it is remarkable that emotions are rarely mentioned in the two key articles in this exchange. Much recent feminist film theory and criticism has been devoted to the description and analysis of oedipal scenarios in which, as laura mulvey has written, woman is a passive image and man the active bearer of the look. She uses the film stella dallas as a test case to support various concepts of feminists film theory including maternal sacrifice and identification. King vidors stella dallas is thus used as an interesting test. Like other prouty novels, stella dallas was adapted into film only two years later. Brings together, for the first time, essays on feminism and film that trace developments in this field from 1973 to the present day. The female gaze is a feminist film theoretical term representing the gaze of the female viewer. Essays chosen discuss and debate specific films which make the book ideal as a teaching aid. This book brings together carefully selected essays on feminism and film with a view to tracing major developments in theory, criticism, and practices of women and cinema from 1973 to the present day. For the past twentyfive years, cinema has been a vital terrain on which feminist debates about culture, representation, and identity have been fought. Christine gledhill on stella dallas and feminist film theory the debate that stella dallas is currently provoking is interesting to me in its disclosure of problems in the way melodrama has entered both mainstream and feminist film studies. Phrase searching you can use double quotes to search for a series of words in a particular order. She has also taught courses on oscar micheaux and spike lee, luis bunuel and pedro almodovar, melodrama, film theory, selected sex genres, and the wire. A cognitive theory of film focuses on the way audiences in general perceive a film.

Or, the maternal melodrama of the unknown feminist film spectator. Topics will include spectatorship, stardom, feminist auteurism, and genre. In addition to garnering oscar nominations for its two female leads, vidor succeeded. Feeling for stella dallas film structure jukola art community. We will then be in a better position to unravel the motherdaughter knot of this particular film. Revisiting stella dallas from a cognitive theory of film perspective. Most of the approaches rely heavily on theories in ways of understanding melodrama. They criticized the role of women in family melodramas, which was basically as willing victims of their situation. Meanwhile, the socalled stella dallas debate, referring to the 1937 film in which barbara stanwyck portrays a woman who gives up her beloved daughter in hopes of giving her a better life among more respectable people, dramatized differences emerging in feminist film theory. So for the time being we will abandon stella dallas to her forlorn place in the rain, gazing at her daughter through the big picture windowthe enigma of the female look at, and in, the movies.

The experience of viewing and the viewing of experience in rear window and psycho cinema journal, winter 1985 by jeanne t. For example, world war ii with quotes will give more precise results than world war ii without quotes. In her analysis of king vidors 1937 film stella dallas, feminist film scholar mary ann doane says that the maternal melodrama is usually seen as the paradigmatic type of the womans film, 1 and calls it that genres exemplary film 2. Stella dallas directly sides with the lower classes, normalizing stellas calculated act by endorsing her choice as practical. This book brings together carefully selected essays on feminism and film with a view to tracing major developments in theory, criticism, and practices of women and cinema from 1973 to the present. Stella dallas directly sides with the lower classes, normalizing stella s calculated act by endorsing her choice as practical. The second play, the doll house show, is a deconstruction of ibsens a doll house, using pieces of feminist theory, george burns and gracie allen. It illuminates the powerful, if controversial, role feminist research has played in the. Stella dallas and feminist film theory, cinema journal, 25. Apr 29, 2015 linda williams focused her studies on the female spectator pleasure by analyzing melodrama classical hollywood films. In other words, a spectators race does not determine his or her response to a given film. Im not versed in the various interpretations, but i found cavells reading of stella dallas very compelling. Maternal issues in vidors stella dallas and linda williamss.

Includes detailed case studies on films such as vertigo, stella dallas, and daughters of the dust. Feminist film theory cinema and media studies oxford. This course will survey the history of women in hollywood film and also the major movements of feminist film theory from the early work in psychoanalysis to present day intersections with cultural studies, queer theory, and scholarship on race and transnational issues. Mar 29, 2018 its important to note that the 70s was also when feminist film theory came to fruition. Over the years, feminist film theory has had nothing but praise for this version. Thus while williams centres her reading on the relation of stella and laurel. Karen hollinger provides an accessible overview of womens representation and involvement in film, complemented by analyses of key texts that illustrate major topics in the field. King vidors stella dallas 1937 provoked one of psychoanalytic feminist film criticisms most extensive dialogues. Notably, as one of the most famous womens pictures, stella dallas firmly rejects fantasies of romantic love.