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ID: 147384

Brown gaze and white flesh: exploring ‘moments’ of the single white female in Hindi cinema / Mubarki, Meraj Ahmed

Mubarki, Meraj Ahmed	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

This paper posits that the contemporary (re)configuration of the generic white woman of Hindi cinema solely as a spectacle was produced by the nationalist discourse during the colonial encounter. This essay explores both the textual analyses and aesthetic strategies employed in the construction of national imagery of white female subjectivities. My approach is twofold: (i) to chart the historical specificities of the representational construct of the white woman through discontinuous changes occurring across Bombay cinema, and (ii) to explore the white female subjectivities across specific historical and cultural milieu. This paper probes the historicity of the ‘Otherness’ of the white woman in Hindi cinema reviews and re-examines how Hindi cinema constitutes female whiteness. I posit that the representation of the white woman in Hindi cinema as promiscuous and sexually available was constructed within the nationalist discourse of the colonial era and is a continuation of the white memsahib in her absence. It is my position that all that was ‘repressed’ in the Hindu woman resurfaces in the white woman – the racial, sexual ‘Other’, onto whom everything repressed within the self could be projected.

Key Words

Sex ; Hindi Cinema ; Other ; Male Gaze ; White Female

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ID: 124459

Female gaze in the blind owl by Sadeq Hedayat and lost highway / Abdolmaleki, Kara

Abdolmaleki, Kara	Journal Article
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2013.

Summary/Abstract

In feminist theory, the "female gaze" is a reaction to the imbalance of power created by the "male gaze". Yet, since the concept lacks sound grounding in theory, it solely poses "a simple (antagonistic) response" to male voyeurism. This article traces the manifestations of the female gaze in Lost Highway and The Blind Owl, a film noir and a novella. It is concluded that instead of offsetting the imbalance of power, the female gaze only reverses it, turning the concept into yet another catchphrase of patriarchal hegemony to further commodify and subjugate women.

Key Words

Feminist Theory ; Blind Owl ; David Lynch ; Sadeq Hedayat ; Female Gaze ; Lost Highway ;
Male Gaze ; Male Voyeurism ; Patriarchal Hegemony

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