Skip to content
1981
Volume 15, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1754-9221
  • E-ISSN: 1754-923X

Abstract

A wealth of scholarship exists around looking relations in cinema, but there is a paucity of research into looking relations in South African cinema. With this article we show that the examination of looking relations in South African cinema offers valuable insights and suggest that similar analyses of other South African films can only be fruitful. Through a close textual analysis of Nosipho Dumisa’s (2018), we interrogate the nature of the gaze directed at Pam, the woman protagonist. The works of María Lugones, Elaine Salo, Azille Coetzee and Louise Du Toit, and Pumla Dineo Gqola allow us to interpret and apply Laura Mulvey’s male gaze within the raced and gendered South African context shaped by colonialism. We show that even though Dumisa displays an awareness of the power relations in looking, and even though she problematizes male looking, the way she uses the camera to frame the look continues to centre the gaze of the men in the film.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • University of Cape Town
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jac_00087_1
2024-04-19
2024-10-12
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Biko, Steve ([1971] 1978), ‘The definition of Black consciousness’, in C. R. A. Stubbs (ed.), Steve Biko 1946–77: I Write What I Like, 3rd ed., Oxford, Portsmouth and Johannesburg: Heinemann Publishers, pp. 4853.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Coetzee, Azille and Du Toit, Louise (2018), ‘Facing the sexual demon of colonial power: Decolonising sexual violence in South Africa’, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 25:2, pp. 21427.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Deleyto, Celestino (1991), ‘Focalisation in film narrative’, Atlantis, 13:1–2, pp. 15977.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Dumisa, Nosipho (2018), Nommer 37 (Number 37), South Africa and North America: Gambit Films, dist. KykNet Films, SA and Disk Star Pictures.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Erasmus, Zimitri (2012), ‘Apartheid race categories: Daring to question their continued use’, Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, 79:1, pp. 111.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Foucault, Michel ([1975] 1995), ‘Chapter 2: The means of correct training’, in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (trans. A. Sheridan), New York: Random House, pp. 17094.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Gqola, Pumla Dineo (2015), ‘What’s race got to do with rape?’, in Rape: A South African Nightmare, Auckland Park: MFBooks Joburg, pp. 3753.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Hitchcock, Alfred (1954), Rear Window, USA: Patron Inc., dist. Paramount Pictures.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Hitchcock, Alfred (1958), Vertigo, USA: Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions, dist. Paramount Pictures.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Hitchcock, Alfred, (1964), Marnie, USA: Geoffrey Stanley Productions, dist. Universal Pictures.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Hollinger, Karen (1998), ‘Theorizing mainstream female spectatorship: The case of the popular lesbian film’, Cinema Journal, 37:2, pp. 317.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. hooks, bell (1981), ‘Introduction’, in Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, Boston, MA: South End Press, pp. 113.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. hooks, bell (1992), ‘The oppositional gaze: Black female spectators’, in Black Looks: Race and Representation, Boston, MA: South End Press, pp. 11532.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Iqani, Mehite and Kenny, Bridget (2015), ‘Critical consumption studies in South Africa: Roots and routes’, Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, 29:2, pp. 95106.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Lee, Spike (1986), She’s Gotta Have It, USA: 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Leydon, Joe (2018), ‘Film review: “Number 37”’, Variety, 23 March, https://variety.com/2018/film/festivals/number-37-review-1202735309/. Accessed 1 September 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Lugones, María (2007), ‘Heterosexualism and the colonial/modern gender system’, Hypatia, 22:1, pp. 186219.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. McFadden, Patricia (2003), ‘Sexual pleasure as feminist choice’, Feminist Africa, Special Issue: ‘Changing Cultures’, 2, pp. 5060.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Mulvey, Laura ([1975] 1989), ‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’, in Visual and Other Pleasures, Bloomington, IN and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, pp. 1426.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Mulvey, Laura (2015), ‘The pleasure principle’, Sight and Sound, 25:6, pp. 5051.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. N’Duka, Amanda (2018), ‘“Number 37” Helmer on paying homage to Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” – SXSW’, Yahoo! Entertainment, 17 March, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/number-37-helmer-paying-homage-181134093.html?guccounter=1. Accessed 1 September 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Reich, Elizabeth and Richmond, Scott C. (2014–15), ‘Introduction: Cinematic identifications’, Film Criticism, 39:2, pp. 324.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Salo, Elaine (2003), ‘Negotiating gender and personhood in the new South Africa’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 6:3, pp. 34565.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Salo, Elaine (2007), ‘Social construction of masculinity on the racial margins of Cape Town’, in T. Shefer, K. Ratele, N. Shabalala and R. Buikema (eds), From Boys to Men: Social Constructions of Masculinity in Contemporary Society, Lansdowne: UCT Press, pp. 16080.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Sosibo, Kwanele (2018), ‘“Nommer 37” goes beyond its Hitchcock influence’, Mail & Guardian, 8 June, https://mg.co.za/article/2018-06-08-00-nommer-37-goes-beyond-its-hitchcock-influence/. Accessed 1 September 2023.
  26. Tomaselli, Keyan and Shepperson, Arnold (2011), ‘Mirror communities and straw individualisms: Essentialism, cinema and semiotic analysis’, Journal of African Cinemas, 3:1, pp. 324.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Williams, Linda (1984), ‘When the woman looks’, in G. Mast, M. Cohen and L. Braudy (eds), Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, 4th ed., New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 56177.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jac_00087_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jac_00087_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error