PHILLIPS ACADEMY 3 1867 00077 4476 THE DESIRE TO DESIRE The Woman’s Film of the 1940s Mary Ann Doane A Midland Book MB 433 p Anno 1778 g # t # # PHILLIPS ACADEMY # # # # # OLIVER WENDELL-HOLMES * > # LI B R ARY I < # # # # # ^7>er~ amphora 1 aS altiora. §>### In loving memory of STEPHEN GLENN BARTON Class of 1978 The Desire to Desire Theories of Representation and Difference General Editor: Teresa de Lauretis The Desire \x to Desire The Woman’s Film of the 1940s MARY ANN DOANE Indiana University Press BLOOMINGTON & INDIANAPOLIS 'll 14) J>Ua © 1987 by Mary Ann Doane All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American Uni¬ versity Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Doane, Mary Ann. The desire to desire. (Theories of representation and difference) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Moving-pictures for women—United States. 2. Moving-picture audiences—United States. 3. Moving-pictures—Psychological aspects. I. Title. II. Series. PN1995.9.W6D6 1987 791.43'088042 85-45986 ISBN 0-253-31682-0 pa ISBN 0-253-20433-X A shorter version of chapter 2 was published originally in Poetics Today, vol. 6, nos. 1-2 (1985). Chapter 6 is a revised version of an article published in Enclitic, 5:2/6:1 (fall 1981/spring 1982). Portions of chapters 1, 2, and 5 appeared in somewhat different form in Cine-tracts, 11 (fall 1980) and in “The ‘Woman’s Film’: Possession and Address,” in Re-vision: Essays in Femi¬ nist Film Criticism (Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1984). A section of chapter 1 was published in The Quarterly Review of Film Studies, vol. 10, no. 4(1987). Photo Credits Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: Chapter6, figures 1-32 (© 1949). United Artists: Chapter 6, figures 33-59 (© 1940). Warner Brothers: Chapter 4, figures 1—14 (© 1946). For my parents, Mary R. and Ivan G. Doane 895029 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/desiretodesirewoOOOOdoan CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix 1 The Desire to Desire 1 2 Clinical Eyes: The Medical Discourse 38 3 The Moving Image: Pathos and the Maternal 70 4 The Love Story 96 5 Paranoia and the Specular 123 6 Female Spectatorship and Machines of Projection: Caught and Rebecca 155 7 The Shadow of Her Gaze 176 Notes 184 Bibliography 199 Index 207