Abstract

The “discipline” of feminist film theory has made and continues to make a significant contribution to the analysis of societal power relations and to the formulation of critical subject and gender theories in numerous other disciplines, and can thus be described as a mirror of theoretical debates on gender and sexuality at an interdisciplinary level. Key paradigms of feminist film theory are notably the “spectatorship” approach, feminist image criticism (“image of the woman”), critical extensions, and objections particularly through cultural studies and postcolonial critique as well as approaches from queer theory and cognitively influenced media studies (film schema approach). Resisting the temptation of a teleological representation of feminist film theories, the contribution aims to provide an insight into coexisting approaches.