'Zero Dark Thirty' – ‘war autism’ or a Lacanian ethical act?
| dc.contributor.author | Piotrowska, Agnieszka | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2015-09-10T12:30:52Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2015-09-10T12:30:52Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2014-05-09 | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | Piotrowska, A (2014) 'Zero Dark Thirty – ‘war autism’ or a Lacanian ethical act?' New Review of Film and Television Studies 12 (2) pp.143-155 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1740-0309 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1740-7923 | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1080/17400309.2014.908269 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10547/577078 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | The paper discusses Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (2012) through the lens of Lacanian ethics as described in Seminar VII. I argue that Maya's single-minded determination is akin to that of Sophocles' Antigone as presented by Lacan. In particular in her decision to see through her commitment to a cause ‘beyond the limit’ as Lacan would put it, she echoes Antigone's ‘inflexibility’ and even her ‘monstrous’ unfeminine and ‘raw’ stubbornness to her mission. This stance, however, is different from a lack of empathy suggested by some critics and scholars. Instead, it constitutes an ethical act within the Lacanian paradigm. I argue that Maya's gender and her feminine beauty defiant in the world of patriarchal procedures also resonates with the position of Antigone. I claim further that psychoanalysis in its emphasis on the unknowingness of subjects and situations has still a lot to offer to film studies, beyond its post-1968 structuralist readings. | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Taylor & Francis | en |
| dc.relation.url | http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17400309.2014.908269 | en |
| dc.rights | Archived with thanks to New Review of Film and Television Studies | en |
| dc.subject | Zero Dark Thirty | en |
| dc.subject | Antigone | en |
| dc.subject | psychoanalysis | en |
| dc.subject | ethics | en |
| dc.subject | Lacan | en |
| dc.title | 'Zero Dark Thirty' – ‘war autism’ or a Lacanian ethical act? | en |
| dc.type | Article | en |
| dc.contributor.department | University of Bedfordshire | en |
| dc.identifier.journal | New Review of Film and Television Studies | en |
| html.description.abstract | The paper discusses Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (2012) through the lens of Lacanian ethics as described in Seminar VII. I argue that Maya's single-minded determination is akin to that of Sophocles' Antigone as presented by Lacan. In particular in her decision to see through her commitment to a cause ‘beyond the limit’ as Lacan would put it, she echoes Antigone's ‘inflexibility’ and even her ‘monstrous’ unfeminine and ‘raw’ stubbornness to her mission. This stance, however, is different from a lack of empathy suggested by some critics and scholars. Instead, it constitutes an ethical act within the Lacanian paradigm. I argue that Maya's gender and her feminine beauty defiant in the world of patriarchal procedures also resonates with the position of Antigone. I claim further that psychoanalysis in its emphasis on the unknowingness of subjects and situations has still a lot to offer to film studies, beyond its post-1968 structuralist readings. |