The Unseen Body: Gaze and the Uncanny in Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Psycho

• Main Authors: Yen-hsi Chen, 陳妍希
• Other Authors: Han-yu Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/50667906074813750019

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系碩士班 === 95 === The psychoanalytic reading of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Psycho in this study aims to reconceptualize horror in the films as well as the audiences’ cinematic experience. Accordingly, this thesis provides an angle to look into the fascination of horror through the audiences’ and the society’s fantasy and, therefore, contributes to uncovering the horror which can not be expelled but emerges over and over again within the text as well as the context. Chapter One discusses the congeniality between the Freudian uncanny and Lacanian gaze, as both underscore the irresistible attraction of horror. Transgressing the borderline between the familiar and unfamiliar, the interior and exterior, such an analogy builds up the foundation of discussion and digs out the secret of horror. The protagonists, Jeffries in Rear Window and Norman in Psycho both attest to the influence of the gaze on the subject. In Chapter One, the gaze is exhibited formally through many scenes of Hitchcockian style. Chapter Two focuses on the characterization of perversion and psychosis based on Lacanian approach and discusses the representation of these structural problems in the films. From formal techniques of the films to the interiority of the characters’ psychological mechanism, horror can be represented not only by what can be seen but also by the intersubjective activity. Besides, this chapter also discusses the issue of the fantasy and the Real that discloses the myth of the characters’ desire and the origin of horror. Chapter Three extends the previous discussions to the Gothic horror with respect to the representation of the body in the films. The different strategies of representing body truly reflect the protagonists’ psychological condition. The enigmatic fascination of the body can be deciphered through the Thing, the object of desire. The scenario about the body also creates the cinematic experience of the uncanny as well as the audiences’ anxiety. Since horror conveys the monstrosity as well as enjoyment which can not be eliminated but compulsively reappears in the text and the context, the psychoanalytical reconceptaulization of horror provides a stance to see through the generic transformations, the darkest part of the subject as well as the antagonism of the society.