This edition of Laura Mulvey's classic work of feminist theory contains writings which range from analyses of Xala, Citizen Kane, and Blue Velvet to an extended engagement with the work of American Indian artist Jimmie Durham and the feminist photographer Cindy Sherman. The essays explore the concept of fetishism as developed by Marx and Freud, and how it relates to the ways in which artistic texts work. Mulvey here returns to some of the knottier issues in contemporary cultural theory, especially the links between looking, fantasy and theorization, on the one hand, and the processes of historical change on the other. What are the modes of address that characterize 'societies of the spectacle'? How might 'curiosity' be directed towards deciphering the politics of popular culture? These are some of the questions raised in this brilliant and subtle collection.
