Daisies (1966): A Radical Exploration of Feminist Rebellion Through Absurdity

Year 2025, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 1 - 23, 30.06.2025

Henrieta Krupa

https://doi.org/10.59280/film.1537142

Cited By: 1

Abstract

This review explores Věra Chytilová's Daisies (1966) as a radical feminist critique of patriarchal norms and gender expectations. By employing innovative cinematic techniques such as discontinuity editing, jump cuts, and rapid non-diegetic inserts, Chytilová subverts traditional narrative structures and the male gaze. The film’s chaotic visuals and satirical narrative disrupt the conventional representation of women, using the characters’ absurd rebellion to expose the futility of seeking liberation within a phallogocentric system. This review examines key scenes and symbols in the film, highlighting how Chytilová’s work transgresses boundaries of acceptable femininity and challenges patriarchal values through grotesque and carnivalesque imagery. The protagonists’ actions and ultimate fate are interpreted as a critique of the societal structures that confine women, underscoring the cyclical and often nihilistic nature of their struggle for freedom. Daisies is thus positioned as a timeless and essential piece of feminist cinema that continues to provoke and inspire critical thought on gender and artistic expression.

Keywords

Daisiea , feminist cinema , cinematic subversion , patriarchal critique , absurdism

Daisies (1966): Absürdite Üzerinden Feminist İsyanin Radikal Bir Keşfi

Abstract

Bu film incelemesi, Věra Chytilová’nın Daisies [Papatyalar] (1966) filmini ataerkil normlar ve cinsiyet beklentilerine yönelik radikal bir feminist eleştiri olarak inceliyor. Chytilová, süreksizlik kurgusu, ani geçişler ve hızlı diegetik olmayan eklemeler gibi yenilikçi sinema tekniklerini kullanarak geleneksel anlatı yapılarını ve erkek bakışını altüst ediyor. Filmin kaotik görselleri ve hiciv dolu anlatımı, kadınların geleneksel temsillerini bozuyor ve karakterlerin absürd isyanını kullanarak fallogosentrik bir sistem içinde özgürlük arayışının beyhudeliğini ortaya koyuyor. Bu analiz, filmin ana sahnelerini ve sembollerini inceleyerek Chytilová’nın eserinin kabul edilebilir kadınlık sınırlarını nasıl aştığını ve grotesk ve karnavalesk imgeler aracılığıyla ataerkil değerlere meydan okuduğunu vurguluyor. Baş kahramanların eylemleri ve nihai kaderleri, kadınları sınırlayan toplumsal yapılar üzerine bir eleştiri olarak yorumlanıyor ve onların özgürlük mücadelesinin döngüsel ve çoğu zaman nihilist doğasını ortaya koyuyor. Daisies, cinsiyet ve sanatsal ifade üzerine eleştirel düşünceyi kışkırtan ve ilham veren zamansız ve önemli bir feminist sinema eseri olarak konumlandırılıyor.

Keywords

Daisies , feminist sinema , sinematik altüst etme , ataerkil eleştiri , absürdizm

References

• Bakhtin, M. M. (1968). Rabelais and His World. (H. Iswolsky, Trans.). The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
• Bartky, S.L. (1988). Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power, In I. Diamond and L. Quinby (Eds.). Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on Resistance. Northeastern University Press, pp. 61-86.
• Beauvoir, S. de. (1989). The Second Sex (H. M. Parshley, Trans.). Vintage Books. (Original work published 1949).
• Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge. Chytilová, V. (Director). (1966). Daisies. [Motion Picture]. Czechoslovakia. Filmové studio Barrandov.
• Cixous, H. (1976). The Laugh of the Medusa (K. Cohen & P. Cohen, Trans.). Signs, 1(4), 875– 893. https://doi.org/10.1086/493306.
• Creed, B. (1993). The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. Routledge.
• Derrida, J. (1976). Of Grammatology. (G. S. Spivak, Trans.). John Hopkins University Press.
• Grosz, E. (1994). Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Indiana University Press.
• Foucault, M. (1972). The Archaeology of Knowledge (A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans.). Tavistock Publications.
• Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Pantheon Books.
• Freud, S. (1961). The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Vol. 19. (J. Strachey, Trans.). Hogarth Press. Pp. 173-179. (Original work published 1924).
• Freud, S. (1997). The Interpretation of Dreams. (A. A. Brill, Trans.). Wordsworth Classics of World Literature. (Original work published 1899).
• Freud, S. (2017). Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. (U. Kistner, Trans.). Verso Books. (Original work published 1905).
• Hames, P. (1985). The Czechoslovak New Wave. University of California Press.
• Hooks, B. (1992). Black Looks: Race and Representation. South End Press.
• Ingvoldstad, B. (n.d.). After the Velvet Revolution: An Industrial Survey of the Czech and Sloval Film Industries in the Cold War Era. Retrieved [June 25, 2024], from http://www.mediaguide.hu/book/bookID19.html.
• Irigaray, L. (1985). This Sex which Is Not One (C. Porter & C. Burke, Trans.). Cornell University Press.
• Kaplan, E. A. (1983). Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera. Routledge. Kristeva, J. (1984). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. (L. S. Roudiez, Trans.). Columbia University Press.
• Kosofsky Sedgwick, E. (1990). Epistemology of the Closet. University of California Press. Kuhn, A. (1982). Women's Pictures: Feminism and Cinema. Verso.
• Krupa, H. (2025). Daisies (1966): A radical exploration of feminist rebellion through absurdity. Turkish Journal of Film Studies,5(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.59280/film.1537142
• Lacan, J. (1977). Écrits: A Selection. (A. Sheridan, Trans.). W.W. Norton & Company. Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16 (3): 6-18.https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6.
• Silverman, K. (1988). The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema. Indiana University Press.
• Smelik, A. (1998). And the Mirror Cracked: Feminist Cinema and Film Theory. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Spivak, G. C. (1987). In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics. Routledge.
• Thornham, S. (ed.). (1999). Feminist Film Theory: A Reader. Edinburgh University Press.
• Williams, L. (1989). Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the “Frenzy of the Visible”. University of California Press.
• White, P. (2015). Feminism and Film. Columbia University Press. Woolf, V. (1929). A Room of One’s Own. Hogarth Press.