Essay Plan Black Swan 1 hr

Essay Plan

"How far does a spectator’s gender affect their viewing experience in contemporary cinema?"

Thesis: 
1. Dominant approach has prioritised exclusively the Male spaectator's position - Freud, Lacan & Mulvey - so Gender has been considered the  most significant aspect.
Is this still true or the most significant?

2. Which film, year of release, director & style, critical response to the film

3. What pleasures was the Director intending to offer to the audience - Intellectual, Spectacle or Emotional?

4. How significant is it in this film? Balanced against Oppositional Gazes, Preferred and Negotiated Readings

Paragrah 1:
Outline Freudian/Psychoanalysis and the meaning produces in the film
Examples & analysis of:
1. Subconscious Suppressed Desires (Animalistic: Sex & Violent Drives) The 'ID'
Scenes:

2. Parental 'Modelling' or (lack of) & effect on Childhood (Nurturing Mother, Daddy's little girl)
Alignment - textual evidence (MICRO) camera, editing hallucinations
Scenes:

Pleasure - Spectacle & Visceral Sexual desire/empathy
Conclusion: so what significance to gender of the spectator - Freud = Male psyche?

Paragraph 2:
Outline Lacanian analysis of the film (Mirror Stage) and the meaning produces in the film
1. Mirrors - broken or distorted - identity and self-awareness
Scenes:
2. Fantasy - hallucinations, lesbian desires, turns into a Black Swan (innocence death/ 'ID' is taking over)
Scenes:
3. God-like perspective for the spectator - omnipresent and omniscient = camera & continuity 'invisible' editing (jump cuts) 
Scenes:
Alignment - Lacan is identity - Identifying with based on Gender?

Conclusion: gender Spectacle Freud waqs basis for this and again Male studies

Paragraph 3:
Outline The Male Gaze, summarise the meaning it produces in the film
1. Voyeurism - CUs = objectification
Scenes:
2. The active 'Look' of male characters, particulalry at women = Power (audience in the film?)
Scenes:
Alignment - Men
Pleasure - sexual pleasure, intellectual

Paragraph 4:
Outline the definition of Oppositional Gazes (power and challenging dominance of male-centric readings)
1. Female Gaze
Scenes:
2. Queer Gaze
Scenes:
Readings - Preferred, Negotiated, Oppositional
Conclusion - directly challenging the question?

Emotional Responses - how does adopting this 'Gaze' make you feel?
Factors that affect adopting this Gaze -  experiences, not being representative of the dominant group/approach




Paragraph 5:
Conclusion: what does it offer to our response to the question - is Gender the most significant factor?