Discursive practices in body care in Almodóvar: current family ties imposed by the female subject

Abstract

This research aims to understand the function of the subject "women" in the films of Pedro Almodóvar. For that we recourse to the theory of discourse analysis of Michel Foucault (1995), in its understanding of “statement" and "discursive formation." This text presents aspects of this theoretical approach to deal with the issues presented initially: what to select for analysis in a film archive, since, in almost all texts, in this case, of that director, women are present? How to select and relate the scenes and/or film sequences in the analysis this universe of images in movement? In the above sense, we have looked at the first sixteen (16) out of the eighteen films of Almodóvar, and of those, separated three (3) for this analysis: "All About My Mother" (1999), "Talk to her" (2002) and "Volver" (2006). As a result, we observed the constant presence of a statement that permeated the work: "the practice of care performed by female subjects to their family members." This statement, although it seems common in films of this director, are surprising because he is linked to formation of a very contemporary discourse: "the new family constitutions derived from the practices of female care."