Serijal Twin Peaks Davida Lyncha i Marka Frosta u kontekstu feminističke i psihoanalitičke teorije
Authors:   , Lončar Karla 
Published: August 2024

The Twin Peaks series by David Lynch and Mark Frost, comprising the eponymous two-season TV series (1990–91), the film prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), the third season Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), and several transmedia pieces, is widely praised as one of the best series ever made. However, feminist critics consider it one of the more polarizing works in film and television history: one group of scholars argues it promotes misogyny and a reductionist view of women, while others claim it realistically mirrors and/or questions the unequal and violent relationships of patriarchal society. These contradictions, reflective of the conflict between the proponents of the second and third wave of feminism, represent the starting point of this dissertation: when it comes to interpretations of gender and gender relations in Twin Peaks, there is undoubtedly a problem. According to research, neither group of thinkers has provided sufficiently comprehensive explanations of their findings, nor have they demonstrated enough interest in the significance of the series’ aesthetic aspects, which, given Lynch and Frost’s highly authorial approach, should be taken into account. The aim of this dissertation is to answer the hypothetical question of whether Twin Peaks questions and subverts patriarchal modes of conduct. It focuses on the predominantly used genre characteristics, i. e., the formal and content aspects of the series’ main three audiovisual works, which are analyzed primarily from the perspectives of feminist and psychoanalytic film theories: the former because of the gender relations it explores, the latter due to its preoccupations with the unconscious, dreamlike and psychic – Lynch and Frost’s important topics. The analysis of the first two seasons, the film prequel, and the third season, especially the connection between their melodramatic, crime, horror, psychological, mythic, and other genre elements – mostly explored by Lynch and Frost via (post)modern stylistic aspects with a strong Expressionist and Surrealist emphasis – as well as the gender representations and relations they entail, yields interesting results. Each segment of the series shows an extensive preoccupation with gender issues, which grows stronger with each new installment. The original series deconstructs the genre codes of television melodrama by affirming its ostensibly feminine content (emphasized emotionality, character intrigues, shallow characterizations based on various dichotomies, etc.) as well as formal elements (open narrative structure, perpetual emergence of crisis, etc.). It also parodies crime fiction by challenging its historical emphasis on rationality (the elusiveness of the killer, "derationalization" of Dale Cooper’s detection methods, Cooper becoming the series’ villain, etc.) and the "beautiful dead girl" trope represented by Laura Palmer (who keeps haunting the people of Twin Peaks). This is achieved by implementing (post)modern stylistic devices, especially those influenced by Expressionism and Surrealism, which contribute to the series’ transgressive and progressive qualities, notably contrasted with the middle-class life and values, underpinning the need for artistic, psychic, societal, and gender-related change. Even if Twin Peaks seemingly promotes an anti-feminist agenda, the melodramatic and surrealist qualities of the work emphatically undermine this notion: the "simplifications" and dichotomies of the former serve as a counterpoint to the more masculine works of crime fiction based on rationalization and psychologization, while the possible sexism of the latter, thanks to its accompanying irony, reveals itself as proof of the characters’ dark desires. The prequel film, a modernist psychological horror conceived within the genre tradition of female gothic, corrects some of the shortcomings of the original series (for instance, it clearly signals that Laura’s father is an incestuous murderer, regardless of his demonic possession). It also positions Laura as a full-fledged, action-oriented subject, similar to the ancient figure of Antigone, unwilling to surrender to patriarchal oppression symbolized by the demon BOB, whom she struggles against both in real life and within the confines of her psyche. The latter is marked by a defense mechanism of "splitting" (Klein), which she ultimately transcends by integrating the "good" and "bad" sides of herself as well as other perceived objects. A similar approach, albeit even more modernist in nature, was deployed by Lynch and Frost in the third season of the series, a Kafkaesque, mythic anti-adventure of its hero Dale Cooper, an ironic mixture of Odysseus and Orpheus, who suffers from a splitting of his psyche as well as from the White Knight Syndrome. This is reflected in Cooper wanting to perpetually save Laura by embarking on an Orphic journey through time, structurally resembling Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo (1958), yet another important leitmotif of Twin Peaks. However, this "heroic" journey does not contain a happy ending, even though it induces psychological and social change. By illustrating Laura’s resistance to the role that Cooper envisioned for her, the show reveals the central problem of the season (as well as the whole series universe) to be the shortsightedness of Cooper’s perspective – that of a prototypical man who perceives women in simplified, polarized and fragmented terms, exemplified not only by Laura but by Diane and Audrey, who were both raped by his doppelgänger possessed by BOB. The analysis of these installments indicates that Twin Peaks questions and subverts patriarchal modes of conduct, by utilizing various content, stylistic, and genre devices. The social critique of the original series functions as an "objective" account of these issues since there is no obvious narrator or focal point carrier. In the other two installments, this critique is based on the perspectives of Laura (film) and Cooper (third season). It does not represent a clear-cut feminist proclamation, but it nevertheless serves as a starting point for discussion about gender, toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and subjectivity, reflecting its contemporaneous social context and the then-dominant wave of feminism (the first two installments are marked by the preoccupations of the Third Wave, while the third season is concerned with Fourth Wave preoccupations). The figure of an anxious man prone to self-improvement and Jungian individuation, represented by Cooper, is especially problematized. This culminates in the final sequences of The Return, whose narrative loops offer a consoling message: namely, that the key to psychic and social change, aimed against the masculine principles of the "dark, dark age" lies in acknowledging the feminine in all its complexity.