Lacan’s three orders, the graphe complet and music in film:: The case of Hitchcock’s Spellbound
The case of Hitchcock’s Spellbound
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- Submited: October 17, 2022
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Published: October 20, 2022
Abstract
This article engages with the Lacanian tradition of film theory in order to suggest some of the ways
in which music in film may be understood to contribute significantly to subject identification in filmic
experience. Two points are argued: 1) that Lacan’s distinction between the three orders - the Real,
the Imaginary and the Symbolic - may usefully be understood in musical terms, and, 2) that the
two vectors of Lacan’s graphe complet – the vector of speech and the vector of drive – provide
meaningful insight into the manner in which the three orders shape filmic musical experience.
Analysis of Miklos Rosza’s score for Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945) serves to illustrate such
insights.
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How to Cite
Lacan’s three orders, the graphe complet and music in film:: The case of Hitchcock’s Spellbound. (2022). Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa, 26(1), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.36615/jcsa.v26i1.1708
