Sexual difference in European cinema: the curse of enjoyment

Abstract

What can European cinema tell us about sexual difference? Can film shed some light on Lacan's infamous thesis that 'there is no such a thing as a sexual relationship'? Fabio Vighi argues that cinema is the ideal medium to unravel not only Lacan's theory of sexuality, but also its social and political implications. This book brings together cinematic fiction and psychoanalysis to identify the repressed kernel that structures our experience as subjects immersed in a specific socio-symbolic context. The filmic representation of sexual difference provides here the key paradigm to unravel the discrepancy and inter-connections between reality and the Real of enjoyment. Vighi examines a number of seminal works in post-war European cinema from two main perspectives: the masculine logic of courtly love, and feminine enjoyment. Inspired by Slavoj Žižek's reading of Lacan, the book analyses directors such as Fellini, Truffaut, Antonioni, Bergman, Ophuls, Rossellini, Bunuel, Rohmer, Fassbinder and many others.