{"id":154,"date":"2017-09-17T23:22:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T03:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/?p=154"},"modified":"2021-08-18T15:19:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T19:19:19","slug":"key-words-power-and-unconscious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2017\/09\/17\/key-words-power-and-unconscious\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Words \u201cPower\u201d and \u201cUnconscious\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the last three weeks in English 403, the concept of power<\/strong> has emerged as a central theme in almost all of our readings and class discussions. Generally defined by Merriam-Webster as the \u201cpossession of control, authority, or influence over others,\u201d the word \u201cpower,\u201d as we have seen, is not only employed in order to demonstrate the strength of a person, group of people, or an entity, but is also utilized as a method for creating or bringing focus to a dichotomy that exists between those that possess power and those that face subjugation under that specific source of power (\u201cPower\u201d). For this reason, analyzing the ways in which different works engage with the concept of \u201cpower\u201d and its effects allows individuals to identify the multiple, unique facets of various power dynamics and gain a better understanding of the seemingly universal precursors that must exist in order to enable the possession of societal power.<\/p>\n

Two works that seem to make the most significant use of the word \u201cpower\u201d include Judith Fetterley\u2019s Introduction to the Resisting Reader <\/em>and Laura Mulvey\u2019s Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. <\/em>In Fetterley\u2019s piece, she grapples with the idea that American society and literature feel a \u201ccommitment to the maintenance of male power\u201d that directly causes and encourages \u201cpowerlessness [to] characterize women\u201d (994, 992). Similarly, in Mulvey\u2019s piece, she also describes a lack of power amongst women by analyzing how films have encouraged a reality based in \u201csexual imbalance\u201d in which \u201cthe active power of the erotic look\u201d is held solely by men (668, 671). Although both writers are concerned with the societal promotion of female powerlessness, it is their analysis of \u201cpower\u201d in regard to different mediums that is most revealing. For Mulvey, \u201cpower\u201d is a visual concept. She argues that films utilize women as \u201cobjects of sexual simulation through sight\u201d by purposefully depicting women as sexual beings that exist solely for men\u2019s visual enjoyment (672). In addition, it also a woman\u2019s appearance, or \u201cvisually ascertainable absence of the penis,\u201d that causes her to be relegated to the periphery and made powerless (672). In contrast, Fetterley is not focused on the visual aspects the define \u201cpower,\u201d but rather, on the way in which education and literature determine \u201cpower.\u201d For Fetterley, one\u2019s power stems from the written works with which they interact and the authors that they are exposed to. For this reason, Fetterley believes women are powerless because they are taught through literature that they must think and act like men and become \u201cintellectually male\u201d (996). In this way, although Fetterley and Mulvey both point to a sexist societal hierarchy that renders men powerful and women powerless, their differing engagements with \u201cpower\u201d enable one to understand the various ways in which person(s) achieve and maintain power at the societal level.<\/p>\n

In addition, it is also significant to note the way in which the word \u201cpower\u201d in both of these works is often accompanied by the word \u201cunconscious\u201d or \u201cuniversal.\u201d While Fetterley and Mulvey wrestle with different channels in promoting gendered power dynamics, they are unified in their assertion that people within society have been unconsciously molded by social formations into expecting and accepting a patriarchal society and its \u201cuniversal\u201d norms. By utilizing the words \u201cunconscious\u201d and \u201cuniversal,\u201d Fetterley and Mulvey not only emphasize the pervasiveness of male power, but recognize that power dynamics are often so ingrained in a culture that they are not fully recognizable or actively thought about by that culture\u2019s members. In this way, Fetterley and Mulvey not only shed light on the tight link between \u201cpower\u201d and culture, but stress that power can only be shifted if people recognize what societal institutions and conventions have enabled those powerful persons or entities to thrive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fetterley , Judith. \u201cIntroduction to the Resisting Reading.\u201d Reader-Response Criticism <\/em>, pp. 990\u2013998.<\/p>\n

Mulvey , Laura. \u201cVisual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema .\u201d Psychoanalytic Theory <\/em>, pp. 667\u2013675.<\/p>\n

\u201cPower.\u201d Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary<\/em>, 2017 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout the last three weeks in English 403, the concept of power has emerged as a central theme in almost all of our readings and class discussions. Generally defined by Merriam-Webster as the \u201cpossession of control, authority, or influence over others,\u201d the word \u201cpower,\u201d as we have seen, is not only employed in order to … Continue reading Key Words \u201cPower\u201d and \u201cUnconscious\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2502,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145910,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-blog-posts","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}