The Real End of a Nightmare: Amateurism, Feminism and the Politics of Therapy in Jane Arden's 1970s. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hilton, Leon J
• Is Part Of: Third text. Volume 34:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 111
• Page End: 122
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Leon J Hilton -- Jane Arden -- Holocaust Theatre -- feminist film -- British feminism -- anti-psychiatry -- amateur performance -- 1970s; Art and society -- Periodicals; Art -- Developing countries -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Developing countries -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals; 700.91724
• DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2019.1691829
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0952-8822

Abstract

Abstract: This article considers Jane Arden's 1972 film The Other Side of The Underneath, a neglected work of British feminist experimental cinema that focused on experimental group therapy. Building upon the theatrical productions of Holocaust, a short-lived feminist group that Arden started in 1970, Arden's theatrical and cinematic projects from the early 1970s involved both professional actors and untrained participants in a strange admixture of theatre exercises, group therapy, and feminist ritual. Illuminating overlooked cross-currents between the women's liberation group-work, the anti-psychiatry movement, and the post-1960s avant-garde embrace of amateur modes of aesthetic expression and production, Arden's work from this period refuses to accede to the tyranny of professionalised expertise – whether of the artist, actor, filmmaker, or psychiatrist.