Final Project Proposal, Blog #8

Julia Carpey

Professor Adam Johns

Final Project Proposal

5 April 2012

Bibliography:

1. Alexander-Barr, Roxan N. The Male Gaze Meets Modernity: Introducing New Levels of Gazes. Thesis. California State University, Long Beach, 2006. Long Beach, CA, 2009. ProQuest/PittCat. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. <https://sremote.pitt.edu/,DanaInfo=proquest.umi.com+pqdlink?vinst=PROD&fmt=6&startpage=-1&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=1790276351&scaling=FULL&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&cfc=1&TS=1333651477&clientId=17454>.

2. Estes, John. "The Male Gaze (Ending with a Sentence by Frank Bidart)." The Literary Review 53.2 (2010): 47. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Feb. 2012.

3. Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 1984. Print.

4. Haraway, Donna Jeanne. "AN IRONIC DREAM OF A COMMON LANGUAGE FOR WOMEN IN THE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT." A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. New York: Routledge, 1991. 149-81. Print.

5. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. Print.

6. Snow, Edward. "Theorizing the Male Gaze: Some Problems." Representations 25.1 (1989): 30-41. Print.

Explaining the sources and my paper:

1. This sources highlights the male gaze in a fashion that would be deemed “unconventional” by its creators. Meaning, this thesis focuses on the male gaze in multiple races and sexual orientations, whereas previously the male gaze primarily focused on white women. Because the essay I plan on revising and continuing is the Frankenstein essay I originally revised highlighting the male gaze within the novel, I feel like this is appropriate to use. The male gaze that I concentrated on focused on the homosexual male gaze; however, because homosexuality is still not as widely discussed in terms of the male gaze there are few articles and academic journals breaking the original mold and venturing into that area. I finally found one that could be of use as it portrays this theory in many modern films and several other literary works.
2. This has already been used in my revision and I feel like it could add something to my paper, even if it does not remain as the introduction. It adds an extra literary perspective of gender roles.
3. I plan on using Neuromancer and Haraway to contribute to the male gaze theory in my paper showing how it has progressed over time. Additionally, I can show the varying gender perspectives and expectations when those gender lines are really thick and obvious versus when they are more blurred and subtle. The essay which I wrote and revised for the second revision for Neuromancer and Haraway can have a slight contribution, concept-wise, as it looks at the various perspectives of gender, gender roles and gender expectations, something which can lend, even minimally, to the second revision of my Frankenstein paper. This is because as I am looking into the male gaze in the classic sense as well as the more modern homosexual perspective (as it is apparently used in Frankenstein) we must also examine gender roles and expectations. Haraway is a perfect critic of this.
4. Just read #3.
5. Self Explanatory
6. This is also already used in the first revision. If you want more sources immediately in my proposal I will have no problem getting them to you. I know that I will definitely be using more sources in my actual final project/paper, but this is what I’ve come up with source-wise thus far.

I plan on continuing my argument in my first Frankenstein revision in arguing that Shelley used the male gaze and gender roles and expectations to her advantage with unordinary characters to in turn help break the stereotypes surrounding those aspects of society. She attempted to blur the lines with homosexuality and homosexual male gazes and allowing certain gender roles to cross over. However we must question how successfully she did this as she still did paint women in a passive light. From there we must question whether or not she did that intentionally to appeal most aptly to the society for which she was writing at that time. In other words, did Shelley only slightly blur those lines of gender and sexual orientation stereotypes and roles and continue to paint her female characters in the light society was used to at that time in order to appeal to the masses? And was she doing this so that her novel would in turn subliminally alter society’s opinions of gender roles even if done so only slightly? Or are these potential goals too obscure?

In order for our society to continue to progress with social equality with race, gender, religion and sexual orientation, we must continue to as ourselves these questions, look at these types of arguments, and in turn look at literary critics’, philosophers’, authors’ and social activists’ perspectives of how to make such advancements. This, is just a small window looking into those arguments and perspectives.

I plan on cutting out a lot of my analysis of the male gaze which is currently taking up a solid chunk of my introduction. As you stated, and as I noticed looking back on my revision, the amount of explanation for the male gaze is unnecessary, filler and can simply be condensed significantly. Additionally, I will be providing significantly more close reading analyses from both Haraway and more importantly Shelley’s Frankenstein.