Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove: desire and the fragmenting of character

Luis Miguel García Mainar

doi:10.14198/raei.1994.7.06

Abstract

This article is an attempt at analysing several aspects of Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove from a point of view which includes concepts of both narratology and post-structuralist analysis. I study the level of the fabula and the characters (at the level of the story) in order to prove the existence in the film of a tendency to discard its apparently satiric aim and privilege a logic of spectacle. The contents of the fabula reveal that the film introduces fantasy to satisfy the audience's desire for identification and creates a self-conscious film which dismatles the satiric text. The study of the characters lays bare the existence of a complex web of signification around each one of them, produced by their being impersonated by well-known stars. The several interactions among the characters in the film, previous characters played by the actors and the actors as personae bring about a dissemination of meaning which deprives the characters of any satiric claim. They are transformed into mere objects to be enjoyed and incorporated to the pervading logic of spectacle, therefore pointing to the ever-present tendency of cinema to present itself as a product to be consumed rather than a text to be analysed.

Highlights

This article is an attempt at analysing several aspects of Kubrick's Dr Strangelove from a point of view which includes concepts of both narratology and post-structuralist analysis
For instance, Northrop Frye's generic classifications the film can be placed in a preestablished system of genres according to the most salient characteristics or themes of the text. Such generic criticism as Frye's belongs to the traditional strand of criticism whose main aim is to provide accurate definitions of literary modes, which can be applied to the highest possible number of works
Dr Strangelove is the product of the interweaving of many different codes whose workings may correspond with the author's and the text's main intention or not. It is within this context that my following discussion of Dr Strangelove as celebration must be placed, as my aim is only to prove that several of such codes are intimately related to the presentation of a textual logic which favours spectacle over other considerations

Summary

Introduction

This article is an attempt at analysing several aspects of Kubrick's Dr Strangelove from a point of view which includes concepts of both narratology and post-structuralist analysis. Dr Strangelove reveáis the existence, in its essence, of this desire inherent in fantasy, which in the film takes the form of a tendency to foster enjoyment of the fantastic, of the incredible, of a signifier which is presented as such through the text's constant activity of pointing to its artificiality.

Results

Conclusion