“I want to hide my body inside of yours”: grotesque female consumption in Alexandra Kleeman and Sarah Rose Etter AND “I don’t know if you’re a detective or a pervert”: voyeuristic pleasure and disgust in Blue velvet

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Shannon Lee Young (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Ben Clarke

Abstract: This paper examines the role of consumption in Alexandra Kleeman’s You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine and Sarah Rose Etter’s The Book of X to argue that capitalism plays a dangerous role in A and Cassie’s sense of identity by entangling their bodies with a larger psychological desire that cannot be satisfied. Most significantly, A and Cassie’s physical appearances and identities are linked to consumption through their stomachs, which become metaphors for larger, psychological hungers. Kleeman and Etter’s protagonists reveal how late-stage capitalism depends on a particular cultural understanding of women as bodies. AND This paper explores the ways David Lynch’s 1986 neo-noir film Blue Velvet harnesses Surrealism’s power to uncover deeper truths and, in particular, the Surrealist fascination with voyeurism to expose how intertwined the seemingly disparate worlds of the film are. By focusing on scenes where a character such as Jeffrey watches Dorothy, this paper argues that Jeffrey’s role of voyeur collapses the comfortable distinction between pleasure and disgust as looking in Blue Velvet becomes a powerful gateway into the unconscious, revealing previously unknown desires.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2020
Keywords
Alexandra Kleeman, Blue Velvet, David Lynch, Desire, Sarah Rose Etter, Surrealism
Subjects
Kleeman, Alexandra $t You too can have a body like mine
Etter, Sarah Rose $t Book of X
Women consumers in literature
Blue velvet (Motion picture)
Voyeurism in motion pictures

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