Join Dr Neil Cocks for this interactive webinar where he will offer a brief and student-centred introduction to ‘The Gaze’ in Critical and Literary Theory.
Theories of ‘the gaze’ have become somewhat familiar in recent years through the notions of ‘the male gaze’ and ‘the female gaze’ . Generally, the idea is that certain representations privilege certain kinds of viewers (men or women, for example), and that, at certain moments, the gaze can move out of whatever artistic medium it is held within, and fix on the viewer. The experience of the gaze is often that moment where it can seem as though a character is looking directly at you. Spooky.
This is the gaze as it is understood by the path-breaking Film critic Laura Mulvey. The Masterclass is, however, interested in another, arguably stranger, tradition of thinking about the gaze in Theory. This ‘Lacanian’ gaze is not active, a force from outside. Instead, and counter-intuitively, the claim is that the sense of being gazed upon arises from the inability of the gazed upon subject to see something in their own field of vision. The spooky effect arises, it is suggested, not from you being looked at, but from you feeling that you are failing to look at something.
Rather than offer a theoretically dense explanation of this phenomenon, complete with complex sounding terminology, the Masterclass will offer a down-to-earth reading of what are perhaps familiar and simple seeming texts. Drawing on his experience of teaching Children’s Literature as an academic subject, Dr Neil Cocks will lead discussions of the song ‘Let it Go’ from Frozen, the cover art to The Gruffalo, and the ending of Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children.
Following the webinar there will be a Q&A session where you can ask questions.
If you sign up to the webinar, you will receive a recording of the webinar.
Click the button below to sign up to the webinar.