Genre and ideology in Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988)

Abstract

This paper analyses Another Woman, one of Allen’s serious films of the eighties, in the light of two genres traditionally associated with the expression of female subjectivity: melodrama and the woman’s film. Taking into account these genres’ conventions, I explore the issues of identity crisis and female repression under patriarchy through an analysis of the film’s protagonist. With this purpose in mind, Another Woman is read in connection with contemporary debates about feminism. More specifically, my analysis reveals the film’s duplicitous ideology: while apparently endorsing female liberation, the text in fact supports a much more conservative standpoint, directly related to the eighties backlash reaction to the achievements of feminism.