Legally Blonde

THEORY
APPLICATION ESSAY Assignment
(100 points possible)

There is no need for arms, physical violence, material constraints.
Just a gaze. An inspecting gaze, a gaze that each individual under its weight
will end by [internalising] to the point that they are their own overseer, each
individual thus exercising surveillance over, and against themself.
Michel Foucault

In this assignment, students will write a 3- to 5-page
essay applying Laura Mulveys theory of the male gazeas developed in her
articles Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema and Afterthoughts on Visual
Pleasure and Narrative Cinemato a film
of their choosing.(It cannot be a film youve already used for another
assignment in class). Students will be able to appraise and employ a
theoretical lens of analysis that is appropriate to a filmic object and demonstrate
through one of the following steps:
Affirm
and Defend
In this type of essay, you would demonstrate how
Mulveys argument is effective in describing and analyzing the cinematic
pleasures of the film you have selected. However, this essay should not just be
a catalogue of your points of agreement with her. Instead, you must try to
imagine the disagreements someone could have with a Mulveyan account of your
chosen film, and attempt to counter these possible objections, showing how
Mulveys framework answers such potential rebuttals.
Extend
and Complicate
Here, your essay would begin by showing how the film
you have chosen can be explained, for the most part, by Mulveys theory.
However, you would also point out elements of the film that Mulveys model does
not seem to account for. You would show your reader, though, that rather than
contradict her argument, these elements allow us to elaborate on, and thus
strengthen, her theoretical framework (think here of Mulveys own elaborations
in the Afterthoughts article).
Challenge
and Refute
In this type of essay, you would argue that the film
you have chosen demonstrates a fatal flaw in Mulveys argumentthat there are
significant elements of visual pleasure in the film that Mulvey can neither
account for, nor could her model be modified to include them. An essay in this
mode, like Affirm and Defend, must be careful to imagine potential objections
to your argumentwhich, here, would be Mulveyan rejoinders to your criticism.
Your essay must attempt to answer these possible rebuttals.

And this link..
AFTERTHOUGHTS ON ‘VISUAL PLEASURE AND NARRATIVE CINEMA’ INSPIRED BY ‘DUEL IN THE SUN’ (KING VIDOR, 1946) (blackboardcdn.com)

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