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RETHINKING FEMINIST CINEMA:
AGNÈS VARDA AND FILMMAKING IN THE FEMININE
by
Nam Lee
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(CRITICAL STUDIES)
August 2008
Copyright 2008 Nam Lee
Object Description
| Title | Rethinking feminist cinema: Agnès Varda and filmmaking in the feminine |
| Author | Lee, Nam |
| Author email | enam22@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Cinema-Television (Critical Studies) |
| School | School of Cinema-Television |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-05-13 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2008-07-18 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Polan, Dana |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Friedberg, Anne Kamuf, Peggy |
| Abstract | My dissertation examines the work of French director Agnès Varda in the context of French feminism and its theory/practice of "feminine writing"(écriture féminine). By demonstrating how Varda's notion of cinécriture (cine-writing) -- her own term for her filmmaking -- shares close similarities with "feminine writing" I argue that Varda uniquely practices "feminine writing" in film: a cinematic writing concerned with exploring questions of feminine identity and creating an alternative film language that challenges and disrupts the dominant mode of filmmaking.; Since a study of a film director inevitably raises the question of authorship in film, I examine the development of auteur theory to question male-centered canonical auteur studies of the past. I also interrogate traditional accounts of French New Wave cinema and feminist film criticism to establish how Varda, previously marginalized, is pivotal to both.; I then turn to "feminine writing" as proposed by French literary critic/writer Hélène Cixous: an alternative textual, political, and ethical strategy to dismantle the hierarchical binary oppositions of "phallogocentrism" that subordinate the feminine to the masculine. Drawing upon the idea of the "feminine" and "feminine writing" as proposed by Cixous and other French feminist critics such as Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva, I analyze Varda's films in terms of the three major characteristics of "feminine writing": narrative subversion and female subjectivity; writing the body; and writing the Other.; To provide a theoretical context for understanding Varda's cinécriture as feminine writing and a political act, I examine the notion of writing (écriture) in French critical theory, especially that of Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida, which greatly influenced French feminists' development of the concept of feminine writing. I view "feminine" not as a biological term but as an ethical term, and I define it as an openness towards the Other. Thus, even though not all of Varda's films are about women, they are all "feminine" because they share the common trait of attention to the marginalized Other. Hence, by linking women and other marginal groups in her films, Varda hasopened up new possibilities for feminist cinema to go beyond sexual politics and to embrace the "feminine." |
| Keyword | Agnès Varda; feminine writing; feminist cinema; auteur; French New Wave; women's filmmaking; textuality |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1355 |
| Rights | Lee, Nam |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Lee-20080718 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume14/etd-Lee-20080718.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | RETHINKING FEMINIST CINEMA: AGNÈS VARDA AND FILMMAKING IN THE FEMININE by Nam Lee A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (CRITICAL STUDIES) August 2008 Copyright 2008 Nam Lee |
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