ANALYSIS:  A method of investigation in which the object of study is described or evaluated by being broken down into its constituent elements.

ALIENATION:  The recognition of the self as alien, distant or detached within a larger and antagonistic society. Hegel suggested that alienation implies a conflictive relation between the individual consciousness and society or society's institutions. Marx attributed alienation to the worker's literal and psychic distance from the product of his/her work. This type of alienation leads to social dysfunction and finally to social rebellion within bourgeois capitalistic society.

ANDROCENTRIC:  From andros (the Greek word for "man") and "center." Androcentric refers to literary concepts and models based on an exclusively male tradition, yet taken to be the norm (normative) for literary and critical texts.  (also, homocentric)

AUTHORITY:  For many critics, discussions on authority often begin with some theory about a text's author function, but almost always these theorizations lead to inquiries on authority in its social and political connotations. As used in our class, "authority" refers to an illegitimate function of power that relies on ideology.  Some people are "authors" of a social organization and from this "authorship" some make a leap and take these "authors" as legitimate representatives of the social organization (they have the authority).  Those who are not seen as "authors" are not taken to be legitimate representatives of the social group to which they belong.  (Do Asian-Americans, Hispanics, African-Americans  have the authority to represent America?)
 

CASTRATION COMPLEX: (FREUD) From Freud's theory of the psycho-sexual development of people. Freud believes that as the Oedipus complex intensifies, the little boy begins to fear that his father might harm him by severing his genital organ which he associates with his real, yet illegitimate, desire of his mother. The little boy fears castration or as Freud states it: "At this (stage) the boy recalls to mind the threats he brought of himself by his doings with that organ, he begins to give credit to them and falls under the influence of fear castration. (129)
Such fear of castration or castration complex causes feelings of fear and shame which have a crucial role to
play in the formation of the human male as a morally proficient being . The little boy comes to accept that his mother does not belong to him but to his father, he experiences feelings of guilt for his strong attachment to his mother. He also fears that his father is going to castrate him. These feelings of guilt and fear are the basic elements for the formation of the idea of justice, that is to say, of the subjective apprehension of the difference between the personal or private sphere and the sphere of the Other.

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD CINEMA : Term used to describe films produced by Hollywood motion picture companies that introduced a type of film which has a linear narrative and the techniques of editing consistent with thus type of narrative (SEE FILM TERMS)  Although many of these techniques were introduced during the era of silent film, they still form the basis for a significant amount of the movies produced in hollywood.
 

CONSTRUCT:  An intellectual and conceptual devise used solely for the purpose of analysis and theory building. When  a construct loses explanatory power it might be discarded and substituted for another that explains more things and in a better way.

COMMODITY FETISHIZATION. (MARX)  The overvaluation of material goods. In general, to fetishize something means to give to that thing or person an incorrect value, a value that given what that thing is, such a thing, object or person does not deserve. For Marx, to fetishize objects is to give to them almost magical value and to detach them from the social relations that produce them, namely, labor.   In capitalism,  the fetishism of money, commodities and property is the "magic" of private ownership and the control of the capitalist of the modes of production.

CRITICAL THEORY:  Theories  which explore the presence of forms of domination in culture and cultural objects (films, novels, etc.)  The ways of inquiry of critical theory vary but most theorist are concerned  with the way

CULTURAL AUTHORITY:  The power a person has to effectively represent his/her group, society or nation. Cultural Authority is acquired by occupying certain positions and behaving in  particular ways as prescribed by a Norm. The behaviors must have and positions that such a person occupies are relative to the organization of power within a group.  Those who want mobility should adapt to some behavioral norms and expectations, even if it implies "bleaching out" some of the aspects that make-up their particular identities.   Intellectual activity (in our case critical analysis of film), revolutionary practices, identity politics are ways of contesting these hegemonic practices of assimilating identities

CULTURAL CAPITAL: The concept of CULTURAL CAPITAL is based on the assumption that symbolic expression, has, like money and property an exchange value determined by the ruling class of society.   The value, say, of a text will be determined by those who are in power. This leads to preferring certain cultural forms and expression over others.

DECONSTRUCTION:    Loosely used (nowadays)  to signify the demystification of a text, or the analysis of its hidden meanings (subtext). However, DECONSTRUCTION means a kind of internal critique in which the critic accepts provisionally the very position that he criticizes
 

DISCOURSE:  Term used to refer to a body of statements that constitute an account of  the way things are (reality)  This body of statement produces knowledge about a particular object or concepts.. Discourse is often confused with IDEOLOGY. 

EXISTENTIALISM  A philosophical and literary movement that came to prominence in europe, particularly in France, immediately after World War II. Existentialism focuses on the uniqueness of each human individual as distinguished from an abstract, universal subject.  Thus, the first commitment of a person is with his/her existence.  One of ha major representatives of existentialism in Europe was Jean Paul Sartre. Fanon is influenced by Sartre and Marx

 FETISHISTIC GAZE :  Abolishes the gulf between the seer and the seen created by the voyeuristic look.  The fetishistic gaze is captivated with what it contemplates.  The voyeuristic look is curious, active and wants to know.

FORCES   OF PRODUCTION:  (Marx) Instruments or tools with which material goods are produced. Also, persons who use these productive tools and manufacture with them material goods. Productive forces (machines, tools, raw materials) and human labor power must be present as the indispensable elements of work. Social life depends on the productive forces it can command and the modes of production employed.

GAY CRITICISM:  This term describes a broad filed of inquiry that share with feminist investigations the idea that gender is historically constructed.  Gay studies question the assumption behind the oppositions male/female heter/homsoexual. It is interested in the ways in which sexuality and same-sex desire are inscribed or represented in texts and films. 

HEGEMONY. Dominance of one group, nation or culture over another

HOMOPHOBIA: Dislike or haterd of feminine qualities in a man

IDEOLOGY  A body of ideas. An accepted system of beliefs and representations.

LEGITIMATION:  The process by which those in power make themselves accepted and acceptable by those who are powerless and the process by which those who are powerless conform to those who have the power.

LESBIAN CRITICISM :  Lesbian criticism has two major assumptions: 1. heterosexuality is an imposed political system rather than a biological mandate. 2. Lesbians experience their femaleness different than heterosexual women because traditional and conventional definitions of femininity presuppose heterosexuality

MALE GAZE: Film theorists use this term to describe the way in which film manipulate the vision of the spectator. This is done through the story or narrative and through the visual show or spectacle. Representations of women traditionally have more to do with spectacle than with story or narrative. Women are objectified to be looked at both by the male protagonist and the viewers. The narrative is usually in control of the  masculine figure. He pushes the story forward according to the leadership he is supposed to have in the traditional representations of masculinity.

MEANS OF PRODUCTION. The  "how" of production. Includes the forces of production and  HOW are these organized for the production of wealth, that is to say, HOW LABOR PRODUCES wealth.  The means of production are not only  measures of human labor-power but also the indication of the relations by means of which work takes place.

METHOD: A systematic sequence of steps used to describe or explain an object.  A particular form of inquiry. Mayne explains two methods or approaches for analyzing Hollywood Style film from a feminist perspective.  These are the "images of women"  (IOW) and the "reading against the grain. (RAG)" The methodology of "images of women" usually points for the negative and distorted representation of women in the screen, and with the lack of correspondence between those representations and the real world. The "reading against the grain approach" to the analysis of classical cinema sees the images of women not so much as distorted, but as parts or components of a system. This approach concentrates on the contradictions inherent in the film as it is a representational commentary of the world. This approach implies deconstructing the film and seeing what  gets resolved  and how does it resolved, or what the film leaves either in tension or intact.

MIRROR PHASE: (MULVEY)   Mulvey says that the mirror phase occurs at time when the child's desire of movement is bigger that his actual motor capabilities. His images in the mirror is, for the child, more complete and perfect that his body since his body still cannot move as he desires.  In a way the recognition the child has of his image in the mirror is a misrecognition. The ego in the mirror is not the real one but an ideal one.  Yet, that image is re-introjected as an ego ideal gives rise to the future identification with others. This mirror moment in which identity and subjectivity are born predates language.
                    For Mulvey,  this encounter of the child with is image is the matrix of the imaginary, that is to say, of all the mental images and representations we will form. But at the very core of that which allow us to form images to interprets the world, there is a process of recognition and misrecognition of ourselves. This is a moment in which there is a collision between what we see and the way we see ourselves. Previous to the recognition of his/herself in the mirror, the child was fascinated by the mother's face and his surroundings but had no clear self-awareness. There is both joy and despair in the recognition of our individuality, joy because, we discover ourselves, despair, because we are severed from our attachment to our surroundings. By the same token, the screen works as a mirror for us. It probably plays with that primeval experience of joy generated by the discovery of our individuality and the and despair caused by the separation from our surroundings caused by self-recognition. While watching the screen we simultaneously lose our egos while simultaneously we reinforce our egos.

MISOGYNY: Dislike or haterd of feminine qualities in a woman
 

NARCISSISTIC IDENTIFICATION:  (NEALE) NARCISSISM:  An excessive concern with our individual self-images However,. Some degree of narcissism is needed for the formation of a healthy ego.  In film theory  'narcissistic identification" refers the viewer as she or he seems an image of him/herself on the screen. For Neale, the male viewer, sees on the screen an image of himself as powerful and omnipotent being.  In the persona of the protagonist, the male viewer sees his ideal ego. This also applies to the female viewer.  She also sees her ideal ego in the persona of the female protagonist.  Neale adds that narcissistic identification might explain the quiet personalities of some male heroes, since language implies coming out of the boundaries of the self and reaching out to the other.

NATION (models of)   THE ESSENTIALIST= The Nation is a real entity founded in a historical past to which nationals are related by feelings of pride and affection. The image of the Nation of the essentialist model implies the existence of a  geographical space, a set of traditions, rituals language that we all share. Any new national (an immigrant, for example) should embrace the traditions and culture of the Nation  that has adopted him/her and s/he should embrace them as these traditions and customs were prescribed by the "originators," 'authors" or "founding fathers" of the Nation.   THE PROCESS model  construes the Nation as system of interpersonal, social and political relations and relationships.  It is a process, and not a particular event.  It is certainly not a THING.  The Process model sees the Nation as always on the making, constantly re-founding themselves because it believes that The nation shapes the individuals as the individuals shape the nation. This Process model implies a project for the creation of a multi-cultural dynamic all-inclusive society.  This society is ever-changing, redefines itself endlessly and  constantly recombines its elements.  However, one must not confuse such a recombination with chaotic divisibility since this recombining of parts is a process in which the parts (ALL PARTS) change the whole and the changes in the whole, in turn, change the parts.  The  nation-building-process is actively multi-directional that is to say, it can occur simultaneously in different directions.
 

PHALLOCENTRISM :  (MULVEY)    According to Mulvey, the patriarchal society is a phallocentric society. This means that it recognizes the male gender and the sexuality of men as the dominant norm.  But phallocentrism depends, in Freudian terms, on the image of a castrated woman.  This image gives order to the world, that is to say, the male dominated conception of society, postulates a masculine subject at the core of all social interchanges, including language itself. Since women represent the absence of a penis, she embodies the fear of castration which is so fundamental  for the constitution of the male subject.

OEDIPUS COMPLEX:  (FREUD, MULVEY, NEALE): Early infancy is, for Freud, the beginning of sexual urges which are associated with the satisfaction of basic needs such as food, shelter and care. The mother or caretaker becomes the love-object as the infant begins to associate her with the satisfaction of his most primeval needs. In this stage the male infant "derives pleasurable sensations" from his penis as the major erotogenic zone. This is the phallic or masturbatory stage.  The boy continues his sexual attachment to his mother into early childhood. Yet he soon realizes that a competing male, his father, is his mother's source of the sexual attention. The little boy wants exclusivity in his mother attention and therefore, he experiences feelings of envy and hatred towards is father, as he concomitantly he he continues to desire his mother. Freud refers to these feelings and responses of the male
child for his mother as the OEDIPUS COMPLEX, in which... "all. these factors- the slights, the disappointments in
love, the jealousy, the seduction followed by the prohibition- are after all, also in operation in the relation of a
boy to his mother and are yet unable to alienate him from his mother" ( 128).

OPPRESSION: Oppression is a socio-political system designed to purposely confine, shape, manipulate or reduce a particular class, group or caste of people solely on arbitrary grounds and for the advantage, of another class group or caste . The oppressive system uses barriers to confine the oppressed class or caste or group. These barriers take the form of norms, laws, procedures, and societal practices which prevent the oppressed class or caste to develop its full potential and achieve freedom. These barriers which are built into the system, are not immediately perceived but a closer look at the organization of society might reveal their existence.  For  some critics (Firestone, as well as for Frye,) a woman in an oppressive society is somehow like a bird in a cage. If someone sees a birdcage he or she wonders why the bird does not fly away. This is so because, the wires that make up the cage cannot be seen from a distance. However, a step back will soon show that the wires interconnect and intersect. The same is true for women. It is therefore, necessary to pay close attention in order to see the patterns of confinement that society devises for women. Since Firestone shares with Marx the premise that every form of oppression is unjust, as well as his method of finding the cause of oppression to eradicate it, she goes on to find the cause of the barriers that confine women.  This definition of oppression can also be applied  to racial minorities  groups and lower economic classes.

SCOPOPHILIA:     Cinema offers a number of possible sensual pleasures, among them, scopophilia, or love of looking  and its opposite the pleasure derived from being be looked at.  Mulvey relies on  Freud's "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" because in these essays Freud says that scopophilia is one of the components of sexuality.  Although scopophilia responds to our sexual drives, its existence is independent of the erotogenic zones. Scopohilia is part of our sexuality because through it we derive erotic pleasure. Scopohilia is also associated with taking people as objects and  subjecting them to a curious gaze. Freud's says that this pleasure from looking at others is present in children. Thus, children manifest  voyeuristic tendencies in their "desire to see and make sure of the private and the forbidden. (142) "  Also, Freud associates scopophilia with pre-genital auto-eroticism.
All these psycho-sexual processes are fundamental for the formation of the ego.
     According to Mulvey, the screen plays with our scopophilia and voyeuristic fantasies. It give us a world in which to submerge in which our gaze wonders free. The audience also represses its exhibitionism and projects the repressed desire to the performer.  Cinema, she feels, satisfies  our basic need for pleasurable looking. It also fosters scopophilia in its narcissistic aspects.  We love looking at ourselves in a narcissistic fashion. The conventions of mainstream cinema focus attention in the human form. The space, the stories the scales are anthropomorphic, that is to say, adjust to the human form. In film our scopophilia and our narcissism intermingle because of our need for likeness and recognition.  For the audience, cinema plays function similar to the joyous encounter of an infant with his/her image in the mirror. This encounter is fundamental for the formation of identity (Lacan's mirror) .

REPRESENTATION:  Taking part or standing for a thing or person that is not present.  Images are ways to represent objects that are not present.  Images represent objects in and to the mind.

STEREOTYPE:  A rigid concept used to designate or describe a sector or group of people.  According to Andre, stereotypes are forms of generalizations which come from our unwillingness to face something.  A stereotype is a form of self-deception; it results from a sense of danger to oneself: a fear that the unfaced fact itself will turn out to be unpleasant, or at least that the facing of it will be. Thinking is work; an unpredictable world is frightening.  Stereotypes, like other generalizations, protect us from effort and fear.

SYMBOLIC ORDER:  (Not used in an strictly Lacanian way in our class). The realm of language and culture.  Every transanction or production that uses linguistic or imagistic symbols. (novels or fims).  It would be very difficult to think without symbols.  Computers, mathematicians, novelist and film makers use symbols.
   
VOYEURISTIC GAZE:   (NEALE, MULVEY)   The voyeuristic gaze is marked by the distance between the seer and the seen.  In extreme cases it might give way to sadistic tendencies or acts.  The voyeuristic gaze gives power to the seer, that is, the seer has power over the seen.    The voyeuristic-powerful look is active.