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PARTISAN REVIEW
honesty and rigor of feminist criticism-:[he issue here is distinct from our
consideration of the claims of feminist crrticism to perform a vital function
distinguishable from other critical traditions . Though I do not think anyone
has made a credible case for feminist criticism as a viable alternative
to
any
other mode, no one can seriously object to feminists continuing to try. We
ought, though,
to
demand that such efforts be minimally distinguished by
intellecrual candor and some degree of precision. This I have failed
to
dis–
cover in most feminist criticism. In this sense, Ms. Mellen's book is lament–
able but not extraordinary, and that is its crucial importance. What are some
of the errors and deliberate falsifications? We shall limit ourselves to exam–
ples from the treatment of Bergman:
"Yet Bergman's women are soiled by their animal needs and invariably
hate themselves." Consider only the characters of Marianne in
Wild Straw–
bem'es,
Maria in
The Seventh Seal,
and Desiree in
Smtles of a Summer
Night:
no one who has seen these films will support Ms . Mellen 's observa–
tion. And again:
"Thus the personalities of Bergman's women are ftxed and precon–
ceived; they exist beyond change and development." These are difficult
terms to deal with, but no one familiar with Bergman should have trouble
dismissing the contention. Does the nurse Sister Alma in
Persona
"exist
beyond change and development"? What of young Anne in
Smtles of a
Summer Night,
or Marianne in
Scenes From A Mamage?
Later on she says
Bergman is "completely out of sympathy with the impulse toward libera–
tion and autonomy." Without getting once again into the plausibility of a
liberationist ethic, it is surely obvious to all who know Bergman that he
admires autonomous women, and anguishes with us over pathologically
dependent women. Doesn't he adore Desiree in
Smtles ofa Summer Night ,
and admire the psychotic determination of Elisabeth Vogler in
Persona–
even as he sees the suffering and coldness of spirit required to purchase
extreme autonomy? These are commonplaces of critical observation with
which even Ms. Mellen could not disagree .
Mellen is making a case for the eroticism of the central relationship in
Persona.
"In their ftrst encounter Mrs. Vogler grabs Alma's arm: the gesture
describes their furure relationship."
It
describes nothing of the sort. The
actress desperately grabs Alma's arm to plead with her to turn off the radio
which is broadcasting a play the lines of which remind Mrs. Vogler of her
own terrible circumstances. "Alma's will begins to break down. Where she
began as the independent, self-sufficient partner, she becomes increasingly
dependent upon her silent patient. " Alma was never conftdently independ–
ent and self-sufficient in her relation with Mrs . Vogler. After seeing her
patient for the ftrst time, Alma suggests to the psychiatric resident that she
f
