Illustrate, compare and critically discuss the deployment of psychoanalytical 'explanations' of homosexuality in any two films.
Guidance
For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the guidelines for writing essays and reports.
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Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages.
Guidance for this assignment: Anchor your text in extended discussions of particular examples: for example, in Victim (Dearden 1961), Cruising (Friedkin 1980) (although you do not have to confine yourself to films shown in the module's screening sessions). At all costs, avoid 'moralising' about the subject - stick strictly to the question! Many such allusions are to (supposedly) Freudian accounts of sexual 'object-choice' (and typically feature popular understandings of 'the Oedipus complex') and you need to demonstrate that you understand what this means. Do not accept such models uncritically (quite apart from whether or not they reflect what Freud actually said). A key problem is that Freud’s model requires the separation of identification (desire to be) from desire (for): it assumes we don’t identify with and desire the same sexual object. In any case, why do we have to 'explain' homosexuality (we seem to feel no need to explain heterosexuality)? What is the filmic function of such forms of representation? How is the audience expected to react? It's important to consider filmic functions as well as psychoanalytic frameworks because we are dealing here with film, not everyday life, and because we are not psychoanalysts! Why and how are the film-makers using such frameworks - for instance, are they seeking to distance us from ('pathologising') a character or are they hoping that we might identify with them (recognising some universal 'deep drive' perhaps)?
Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations may be useful. Use these to illustrate particular points. Contrasting one with another can also be productive. Incorporate illustrations electronically into your text (e.g. by scanning or downloading from the Internet) rather than literally cutting and pasting. For guidance on capturing stills, click here.
Some suggested reading
Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!
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