The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema / Edition 1

by Kaja Silverman

Overview

" . . . a vitally new understanding that takes us from the terms of the representation of sexual difference to an anatomy of female subjectivity which will be widely influential." —Stephen Heath

"An original work likely to have significant impact on all those with an interest in the vibrant intersection of feminism, film theory, and psychoanalysis . . . " —Naomi Schor

" . . . powerfully argued study . . . impressive . . . " —Choice

" . . . important because of its innovative work on Hollywood's ideologically-charged construction of subjectivity. . . . what is exciting about The Acoustic Mirror is that it inspires one to reevaluate a number of now classical theoretical texts, and to see films with an eye to how authorship is constructed and subjectivity is generated." —Literature and Psychology

"As evocative as it is shrewdly systematic, the pioneering theory of female subjectivity formulated in the final three chapters will have wide impact as a major contribution to feminist theory." —SubStance

The Acoustic Mirror attempts to do for the sound-track what feminist film theory of the past decade has done for the image-track—to locate the points at which it is productive of sexual difference. The specific focus is the female voice understood not merely as spoken dialogue, narration, and commentary, but as a fantasmatic projection, and as a metaphor for authorship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253204745
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	04/22/1988
Series:	Theories of Representation and Difference
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

[1] Lost Objects and Mistaken Subjects: A Prologue

[2] Body Talk

[3] The Fantasy of the Maternal Voice: Paranoia and Compensation

[4] The Fantasy of the Maternal Voice: Female Subjectivity and the Negative Oedipus Complex

[5] Disembodying the Female Voice: Irigaray, Experimental Feminist Cinema, and Femininity

[6] The Female Authorial Voice

Notes

Index