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Afterimages: On Cinema, Women and Changing Times
Marking a return for Laura Mulvey to questions of film theory and feminism, as well as a reconsideration of new and old film technologies, this urgent and compelling collection of essays is essential reading for anyone interested in the power and pleasures of moving images.
Its title, Afterimages , alludes to the dislocation of time that runs through many of the films and works it discusses as well as to the way we view them. Beginning with a section on the theme of woman as spectacle, a shift in focus leads to films from across the globe, directed by women and about women, all adopting radical cinematic strategies. Mulvey goes on to consider moving image works made for art galleries, arguing that the aesthetics of cinema have persisted into this environment.
Structured in three main parts, Afterimages also features an appendix of ten frequently asked questions on her classic feminist essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” in which Mulvey addresses questions of spectatorship, autonomy, and identity that are crucial to our era today.
Its title, Afterimages , alludes to the dislocation of time that runs through many of the films and works it discusses as well as to the way we view them. Beginning with a section on the theme of woman as spectacle, a shift in focus leads to films from across the globe, directed by women and about women, all adopting radical cinematic strategies. Mulvey goes on to consider moving image works made for art galleries, arguing that the aesthetics of cinema have persisted into this environment.
Structured in three main parts, Afterimages also features an appendix of ten frequently asked questions on her classic feminist essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” in which Mulvey addresses questions of spectatorship, autonomy, and identity that are crucial to our era today.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published October 14, 2019
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275 people want to read
About the author
Laura Mulvey
40 books154 followersLaura Mulvey is an English feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She worked at the British Film Institute for many years before taking up her current position.
Mulvey is best known for her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the influential British film theory journal Screen. It later appeared in a collection of her essays entitled Visual and Other Pleasures, as well as in numerous other anthologies. Her article, which was influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, is one of the first major essays that helped shift the orientation of film theory towards a psychoanalytic framework. Prior to Mulvey, film theorists such as Jean-Louis Baudry and Christian Metz used psychoanalytic ideas in their theoretical accounts of the cinema. Mulvey's contribution, however, inaugurated the intersection of film theory, psychoanalysis and feminism.
(via wiki)
Mulvey is best known for her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the influential British film theory journal Screen. It later appeared in a collection of her essays entitled Visual and Other Pleasures, as well as in numerous other anthologies. Her article, which was influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, is one of the first major essays that helped shift the orientation of film theory towards a psychoanalytic framework. Prior to Mulvey, film theorists such as Jean-Louis Baudry and Christian Metz used psychoanalytic ideas in their theoretical accounts of the cinema. Mulvey's contribution, however, inaugurated the intersection of film theory, psychoanalysis and feminism.
(via wiki)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 26, 2021
Laura Mulvey is perhaps most famous for her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," in which she coined and explained the now-famous filming style "the male gaze." In this book Mulvey seems to shift her idea of "the gaze," to the female perspective, writing about the women both in front of and behind the camera. While not all of the essays make strong points, the beginning of the third volume is particularly weak, there are several that provide complex and intriguing views on what female created/ led films contribute to film history and media culture.
August 11, 2022
Varied but cohesive reflections on cinema from an iconic critical voice. The focus on female directed cinema in the central chapter is the highlight, thought the other two chapters are also of interest.
Reappraisals of classics like Le Mepris and Vertigo shine new lights on films that had been seemingly already over-lit (to torture the metaphor). The third chapter focuses on experimental film, and is evocative in its descriptions of installation art that is unavailable to the reader. It uses specific analysis to also reveal more about the nature of cinema; the experimental works are picked because they spotlight aspects of cinema and invoke discourse about the medium.
For example, one allows for a reflection on cinema and time; one is a dissection of rear projection as a tool and another part goes into how projection is unharnessed even by the most experimental works. These sit very nicely next to extended and involving thoughts on Jeanne Dielman, Daughters of the Dust, and The Arbor. There’s a nice mix of the writer’s history with these works alongside specific analysis. Familiarity with the works helps but is not necessary.
A final part responds to Mulvey’s landmark original essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. It is open and self critical while also contextualising and justifying key aspects.
Reappraisals of classics like Le Mepris and Vertigo shine new lights on films that had been seemingly already over-lit (to torture the metaphor). The third chapter focuses on experimental film, and is evocative in its descriptions of installation art that is unavailable to the reader. It uses specific analysis to also reveal more about the nature of cinema; the experimental works are picked because they spotlight aspects of cinema and invoke discourse about the medium.
For example, one allows for a reflection on cinema and time; one is a dissection of rear projection as a tool and another part goes into how projection is unharnessed even by the most experimental works. These sit very nicely next to extended and involving thoughts on Jeanne Dielman, Daughters of the Dust, and The Arbor. There’s a nice mix of the writer’s history with these works alongside specific analysis. Familiarity with the works helps but is not necessary.
A final part responds to Mulvey’s landmark original essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. It is open and self critical while also contextualising and justifying key aspects.
January 2, 2026
Mulvey e în categoria de autori cu care vr să stau la cafea (împreună cu Said). Ff conversațională cartea.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews