Creating A Feminist Gaze?: Motherhood and Identity in Recent Costa Rican Cinema

Harvey-Kattou, L. 2025. Forthcoming. Creating A Feminist Gaze?: Motherhood and Identity in Recent Costa Rican Cinema. in: Vania Barraza and María Helena Rueda (ed.) Female Agency in Films Made by Latin American Women Palgrave Macmillan.

Chapter titleCreating A Feminist Gaze?: Motherhood and Identity in Recent Costa Rican Cinema
AuthorsHarvey-Kattou, L.
EditorsVania Barraza and María Helena Rueda
Abstract

This chapter develops the notion of the feminist gaze, analysing the mother characters in the Costa Rican films Apego (Patricia Velázquez, 2019) and El despertar de las hormigas (Antonella Sudasassi, 2019). It begins by outlining both the existing tropes of motherhood as seen in popular film, as well as advancing the concept of the feminist gaze as a framework for the study of film. It goes on to consider specific aspects of Apego and El despertar, considering how the protagonists first adhere to but then break with the idea of the sacrificial mother, before examining how, both through the narrative and visually, the films reject the fixed, binary notion of the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ mother, and show instead mother characters as individuals, disentangling their identities from their roles as mothers in a positive way. The analysis shows that the expectations of the role of mother clash with the protagonists’ individual identities and desires, while also simultaneously embodying these oppositional forces. As such, the chapter argues that these films create a nuanced vision of cinematic motherhood which is firmly rooted in the psychic and emotional world of the female protagonist.

KeywordsCosta Rican cinema
feminist gaze
Patricia Velásquez
Antonella Sudasassi
the gaze
Book titleFemale Agency in Films Made by Latin American Women
Year2025
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
SeriesGlobal Cinema
ISBN9783031725999
9783031726026
9783031726002
Web address (URL)https://link.springer.com/book/9783031725999

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