If Looks Could Kill: Modern Gaze Theory and the House of the Vettii at Pompeii
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Authors
Kickham, Maureen
Issue Date
2003
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
In the following comments I will interpret the images of violence in the House of
the Vettii by applying to Roman domestic decoration one of the approaches used in
Frederick's collection, the feminist film theory of Laura Mulvey. In her seminal essay
written in 1975, "Visual Pleasure and Dominant Narrative Cinema" Mulvey uses
Freudian psychoanalysis as a "political weapon" and demonstrates how dominant
narrative cinema, or the familiar Hollywood film, is an "exact rendering of the frustration
experienced under the phallocentric order." The woman is nothing in her own right; only
the alternative to maleness. She matters only as much as she provokes action in the male
characters. Mulvey clearly has a political agenda. She hopes that by identifying this
"unconscious of the patriarchal society," it will begin to erode and eventually break down
altogether.
Description
iii, 53 p.
Citation
Publisher
Kalamazoo, Mich. : Kalamazoo College
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.