Jouissance at the margins: Phillippe Harel's Extension du domaine de la lutte/Whatever

Reader, K. (2001) Jouissance at the margins: Phillippe Harel's Extension du domaine de la lutte/Whatever. Studies in French Cinema, 1(2), pp. 118-125. (doi: 10.1386/sfci.1.2.118)

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Abstract

Extension du domaine de la lutte (1999) deals with a social class – the world of middle computer management – infrequently seen in recent French cinema. The article interrogates this representation along with problems of masochism and male sexual self-disgust raised by the film and the Michel Houellebecq source-novel. The film's two central characters purportedly, and vainly, seek pleasure in heterosexual fulfilment when it may be masochistic jouissance that is the real object of their desire. The Kristevan notion of the abject – generally applied to the feminine – appears in this context to be applicable to masculinity and the phallus as well.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Reader, Professor Keith
Authors: Reader, K.
Subjects:P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > French
Journal Name:Studies in French Cinema
Publisher:Intellect
ISSN:1471-5880

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