Mary Ann Doane (born 1952) is the Class of 1937 Professor of Film and Media at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and was previously the George Hazard Crooker

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Modern Culture and

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

. She is a pioneer in the study of gender in film. In 1974, Doane received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and in 1979, earned her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Speech and Dramatic Art from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

. Doane specializes in

film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or Philosophy, philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's Gender role, social roles, experiences, intere ...

and

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

, and she joined the UC Berkeley Film and Media faculty in the fall of 2011.

As a film theorist

Doane is best known for her collection of essays ''Femmes Fatales: Feminism, Film Theory, Psychoanalysis''. The essays in this book examine the ways in which women are misrepresented and alienated in films. The articles have appeared in academic journals such as ''

Screen Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing or ''silkscreening'', a printing method * Big screen, a nickname for motion pictures * Split screen (filmmaking), showing two or more images side by side * Stochastic screening and Halftone ...

'', ''

Discourse Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. F ...

'', ''

Camera Obscura A camera obscura (; ) is the natural phenomenon in which the rays of light passing through a aperture, small hole into a dark space form an image where they strike a surface, resulting in an inverted (upside down) and reversed (left to right) ...

'', and the anthology ''Psychoanalysis and Cinema''. Doane argues that

Classical Hollywood cinema In film criticism, Classical Hollywood cinema is both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking that first developed in the 1910s to 1920s during the later years of the Silent film#Silent film era, silent film era. It then became characteristi ...

was produced, moderated, and controlled by the male spectator's views. Thus, most of the female characters are a representation of their desires or fears. She gives the example of the

femme fatale A ( , ; ), sometimes called a maneater, Mata Hari, or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and Seduction, seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype ...

, a female stock character that often appears in the

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

genre. The femme fatale is often portrayed as an evil force trying to deceive the male protagonist, and she is usually punished or killed because of this. Doane claims this is a "desperate reassertion of control on the part of the threatened male subject." This is debated among film theorists, but Doane argues that the femme fatale is not an empowered female character. She is a projection of masculine insecurities and should not be viewed as a character with agency. In ''Film and the Masquerade: Theorising the Female Spectator'', Doane agrees with

Laura Mulvey Laura Mulvey (born 15 August 1941) is a British feminist film theorist and filmmaker. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She previously taught ...

on cinema catering to male pleasures and the

male gaze In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosex ...

. She argues that women are too close to the object of the gaze; they struggle between feminine and masculine viewing positions, “invoking the metaphor of the transvestite.” As a result of having to adopt male viewpoints, women are more fluid in terms of sexuality and gender. Women must "'masculinize' their spectatorship" to avoid masochism (from over-identification) or narcissism (from becoming their own object of desire), and because of this, Doane claims "womanliness is a mask which can be worn and removed". Doane has also written, published, and co-edited numerous other articles and books, including ''The Desire to Desire: The Woman's Films of the 1940s'' and ''The Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity, Contingency, the Archive''.

Awards

In 1990, Doane won the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

for Humanities, U.S. and Canada for her work in film, video, and radio studies. In 2016 she was a fellow at the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and German ...

. Also, her book, ''The Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity, Contingency, the Archive'', won the Limina award.

References

External links

Mary Ann Doane Papers
- Pembroke Center Archives, Brown University {{DEFAULTSORT:Doane, Mary Ann Living people Brown University faculty Cornell University alumni University of Iowa alumni 1952 births University of California, Berkeley faculty