CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Smilgyte, Ausrine |
|---|---|
| Title | Isolated Salvation: Analyzing Discourses on Sapphic Experiences in Lesbian Period Drama Films |
| Summary | My thesis focuses on discourses on sapphic experiences in four lesbian period drama films: Carol (Haynes, 2015), Lizzie (Macneill, 2018), Tell It to the Bees (Jankel, 2018), and Portrait de la jeune fille en feu [Portrait of a Lady on Fire] (Sciamma, 2019). The genre of lesbian period drama films has lived through its peak in 2015–2020 and was followed by a series of criticisms on its uniformity and stereotype-driven plots. The aim of my project is to analyze the discourses on lesbian experiences in the four films by looking into how lesbian experiences are portrayed through the sapphic characters’ relationships to their surroundings, to each other, and to themselves. I set out to examine how patriarchy manifests in directorial choices when depicting said relationships and how these representations of lesbian experiences might translate to contemporary lesbian audiences. First, I draw on quantitative data provided by internationally recognized human rights organizations and support it with country-specific examples to indicate homophobic discourses that affect lesbian lives and might be either contested or complemented by the discourses produced in my chosen films. Then, I lay the theoretical foundation for my research by examining the connection between discourses, power, and meanings through the lens of gender; providing a short study of psychoanalytic discussions on female homosexuality as a tool to help read gender relations in audiovisual texts; and looking at feminist and queer film theory on portrayals of lesbianism in cinema. Lastly, I apply this material for the film analysis. The main findings include both positive and negative depictions of lesbian experiences. I emphasize the extensive critique of patriarchal power relations that lesbian period drama films offer the audiences, unconventional ways of visualizing desire and intimacy, and the consistent positioning of sapphic desire as natural and freeing in contrast to the melancholia brought on by compulsory heterosexuality. The adverse portrayals point to unequal but normalized power dynamics between lovers and directorial choices that still heavily rely on phallocentric Freudian ideas and heterosexual imaginary. |
| Supervisor | Barát, Erzsébet; Lukić, Jasmina |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/smilgyte_ausrine.pdf |
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