Spectacular Passions

Farmer Brett Farmer

Description

The image of the movie-obsessed gay man is a widely circulating and readily recognizable element of the contemporary cultural landscape. Using psychoanalytic theory as his guide while inflecting it with insights from both film theory and queer theory, Brett Farmer moves beyond this cliche to develop an innovative exploration of gay spectatorship. The result, Spectacular Passions, reveals how cinema has been engaged by gay men as a vital forum for "fantasmatic performance"-in this case, the production of specifically queer identities, practices, and pleasures.Building on the psychoanalytic concept of the fantasmatic, Farmer works to depathologize gay male subjectivity. While discussing such films as Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Pirate, Suddenly Last Summer, and Sunset Boulevard, and stars ranging from Mae West to Montgomery Clift, Farmer argues that the particularities of gay men's social and psychic positionings motivate unique receptions of and investments in film. The Hollywood musical, gay camp readings of the extravagant female star, and the explicit homoeroticism of the cinematic male body in gay fanzines are further proof, says Farmer, of how the shifting libidinal profiles of homosexual desire interact with the fantasy scenarios of Hollywood film to produce a range of variable queer meanings.This fascinating and provocative study makes a significant new contribution to discussions of cinema, spectatorship, and sexuality. As such, it will be welcomed by those in the fields of film theory, queer theory, and cultural studies.

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822380252
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Spectacular Passions

Spectacular Passions

   ,  ,    

B R E T T F A R M E Rl

Duke University Press

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©  Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper $ Typeset in Janson by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. l

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Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: At First Sight: Definitions, Clarifications, and Assorted Prolegomena 

Something a Little Strange: Theorizing Gay Male Spectatorships 

Fantasmatic Escapades: Gay Spectatorships and Queer Negotiations of the Hollywood Musical 

Camping under the Stars: Gay Spectatorships, Camp, and the Excessive Female Star Image 

Mommie Dearest: Gay Spectatorships and Formations of Maternal-Oriented Desire 

Papa, Can’t You See That I’m Flaming? Gay Spectatorships and Figures of Masculinity 

Notes 

Filmography 

Bibliography 

Index 

Acknowledgments

Like many happy things in life, this book is the result of an advantageous combination of good fortune, enabling opportunity, and considerable personal and institutional assistance. It started as a doctoral dissertation at Griffith University, where it benefited enormously from the careful guidance and expert advice offered by my supervisors, Gillian Swanson and Dugald Williamson, and the warm encouragement extended by the members of the examination committee: Jane Crisp, Alexander Doty, Barbara Creed, and Edward Baron Turk. I thank themall for the kind enthusiasmand generosity with which they read and responded to my work. At Duke University Press, Richard Morrison provided diligent edito- rial support for the project, and two anonymous readers gave invaluable feedback on ways to hone and strengthen the book’s major arguments and claims. The Department of English at the University of Melbourne furnished an accommodating and intellectually stimulating context within which to achieve the often arduous tasks of redevelopment and rewriting. I owe particular thanks to my Heads of Department, Simon During and Ken Ruthven, for their unflagging commitment to the value of my research work. I would also like to extend special thanks to two of my colleagues in the Cultural Studies Program, Chris Healy and Annamarie Jagose, for their guidance and support through what has been an enormously steep learning curve and for their personal and professional magnanimity. Many others contributed both directly and indirectly to the realiza- tion of this project. I would like to thank Nick Adams, Steven Angelides, Annita Boyd, Jodi Brooks, Marion Campbell, Melissa Connell, Frank Davies, Emma Felton, John Hirsch, Nichole Matthews, Sue Strong, An- drew Surrey, and Chris Tennant. I amalso grateful to the many gay