The Postfeminist Masquerade and the Cynical Male Gaze: The Disavowal of Sexual Difference in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves
This article is a commentary on the Lacanian appropriation of Breaking the Waves by Slavoj Zizek, Frances Restuccia and others who argue that the film’s saintly heroine, Bess, performs an authentic feminine act paradoxically in her very suicidal over-identification with her husband’s male chauvinist...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2014-12-01
|
| Series: | E-REA |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/4093 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1841552601230868480 |
|---|---|
| author | Tamas NAGYPAL |
| author_facet | Tamas NAGYPAL |
| author_sort | Tamas NAGYPAL |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article is a commentary on the Lacanian appropriation of Breaking the Waves by Slavoj Zizek, Frances Restuccia and others who argue that the film’s saintly heroine, Bess, performs an authentic feminine act paradoxically in her very suicidal over-identification with her husband’s male chauvinistic desire pressing her to have sex with other men, through which she successfully demonstrates the deadlock of sexual difference and subverts the phallic-masculine symbolic order. By contrast, this paper argues that the heroine is rather trapped in what Angela McRobbie called the postfeminist masquerade, a feminine gender performance that returns to old forms of patriarchal subordination but with an ironic distance, thereby allowing the subject to imagine herself free of the capture of the masculine symbolic universe. In a cynical move which undermines the postfeminist association of irony with freedom, the director equates Bess’s belief in God with her acting for the gaze of his camera, betraying his skepticism about a feminine subject not captured by the cinema’s patriarchal apparatus. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7f03c3afb230444b825517e771e5e65b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2014-12-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj-art-7f03c3afb230444b825517e771e5e65b2025-01-09T12:54:13ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182014-12-0112110.4000/erea.4093The Postfeminist Masquerade and the Cynical Male Gaze: The Disavowal of Sexual Difference in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the WavesTamas NAGYPALThis article is a commentary on the Lacanian appropriation of Breaking the Waves by Slavoj Zizek, Frances Restuccia and others who argue that the film’s saintly heroine, Bess, performs an authentic feminine act paradoxically in her very suicidal over-identification with her husband’s male chauvinistic desire pressing her to have sex with other men, through which she successfully demonstrates the deadlock of sexual difference and subverts the phallic-masculine symbolic order. By contrast, this paper argues that the heroine is rather trapped in what Angela McRobbie called the postfeminist masquerade, a feminine gender performance that returns to old forms of patriarchal subordination but with an ironic distance, thereby allowing the subject to imagine herself free of the capture of the masculine symbolic universe. In a cynical move which undermines the postfeminist association of irony with freedom, the director equates Bess’s belief in God with her acting for the gaze of his camera, betraying his skepticism about a feminine subject not captured by the cinema’s patriarchal apparatus.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/4093Lacanjouissancesexual differencepostfeminismpatriarchy |
| spellingShingle | Tamas NAGYPAL The Postfeminist Masquerade and the Cynical Male Gaze: The Disavowal of Sexual Difference in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves E-REA Lacan jouissance sexual difference postfeminism patriarchy |
| title | The Postfeminist Masquerade and the Cynical Male Gaze: The Disavowal of Sexual Difference in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves |
| title_full | The Postfeminist Masquerade and the Cynical Male Gaze: The Disavowal of Sexual Difference in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves |
| title_fullStr | The Postfeminist Masquerade and the Cynical Male Gaze: The Disavowal of Sexual Difference in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Postfeminist Masquerade and the Cynical Male Gaze: The Disavowal of Sexual Difference in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves |
| title_short | The Postfeminist Masquerade and the Cynical Male Gaze: The Disavowal of Sexual Difference in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves |
| title_sort | postfeminist masquerade and the cynical male gaze the disavowal of sexual difference in lars von trier s breaking the waves |
| topic | Lacan jouissance sexual difference postfeminism patriarchy |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/4093 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tamasnagypal thepostfeministmasqueradeandthecynicalmalegazethedisavowalofsexualdifferenceinlarsvontriersbreakingthewaves AT tamasnagypal postfeministmasqueradeandthecynicalmalegazethedisavowalofsexualdifferenceinlarsvontriersbreakingthewaves |