Dark Reflections: Fantasy and Duality in the Work of David Lynch

Abstract

This thesis investigates the sexual construction of Lacanian fantasy in the work of David Lynch. Primary texts include Lynch's films <italic>Blue Velvet</italic> (1986), <italic>Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me</italic> (1992), <italic>Lost Highway</italic> (1997), and <italic>Mulholland Drive</italic> (2001), along with David Lynch and Mark Frost's TV show <italic>Twin Peaks</italic> (1990-1991). The thesis builds upon the Lacanian scholarship of Lynch scholar Todd McGowan, examining how fantasy operates and structures the worlds of Lynch's films; the thesis expands upon McGowan's work from a feminist perspective, considering how concerns of gender and sexuality inform the construction of fantasy in Lynch's work. In <italic>Blue Velvet</italic> and <italic>Twin Peaks</italic>, fantasy operates as a necessary element of social structure; the social experience of reality is informed by the existence of fantasy in these texts. <italic>Lost Highway</italic> and <italic>Mulholland Drive</italic> turn from the social to the personal, examining how desperate individuals seek escape from their unbearable realities through an escape into fantasy. As this thesis will investigate, although fantasy is a necessary component of the social order, it is inadequate as a means of escape from the troubles of life.