Silent spectacle: Female subjectivity in the modern novel and film

Thinking of ourselves as subject beings with a purpose, we continually seek ways to present ourselves, articulate our sense of self, or identify with others. If theories on subjectivity remain fundamentally elusive, contradictory, yet necessary, then defining our identity engages in ongoing dialog and depends on relations with as well as recognition from others. Rather than seek a "this or that" theory, the deliberate and varied choice of texts represents a critical lens for understanding the complex issue of subjectivity and its significance to our lives. Contemporary selections ranging from literary and filmic texts by Edith Wharton (The House of Mirth, 1905 and The Custom of the Country, 1913), Jhumpa Lahiri (The Interpreter of Maladies, 1999), Jane Campion (The Piano, 1993), and Isabel Coixet (The Secret Life of Words, 2005) explore the nuanced implications, engage in meaningful dialectic, and challenge masculine models of female subjectivity and desire in narrative, visual, and cinematic levels while illuminating multiple expressions of female subjectivity across social boundaries of race, class, gender, nation, and history. While the construction of female subjectivity produces visual excess in these works, it simultaneously subverts representation and modes of self-formation.