Abstract
Duality has been of key thematic interest to filmmaker David Lynch for the duration of his career, manifesting in works such as Twin Peaks (1990-91), Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001) Inland Empire (2006), and most recently in the contemporary return of Twin Peaks (2017). While Lynch demonstrates a keen fascination with duality within narrative and image, it most commonly emerges in the figure of the doppelganger. This paper analyses the presence of doubles and doppelgangers in the oeuvre of David Lynch, interrogating how they often exceed their role as counterpoints of Manichean evil to Lynch’s idealistic protagonists and instead provoke questions about the unstable nature of identity. To do so, I delineate the common variations of doppelgangers that populate Lynch’s oeuvre and examine the previous scholarly interpretations of their relevance, while also interrogating the limitations of these approaches. While it has been contended that Lynch’s films use the double to demonstrate the periodic confrontation with the shadow that is necessary for a healthy psyche, the borders between the shadow and its interrogator are often shown to be porous if not completely ineffective. Indeed, often both sides of the double are inextricably woven through diegetic overlap or a synthesis of identity. Although Lynch has often employed the double as an evil reflection of his protagonists, I contend that is through the destabilisation of the perceived hermetic boundary of identity that his works transcend the dynamics of Manichean dualism and move towards a profound and horrific affect.
Presenters
Adam DanielSessional Lecturer/Tutor, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University, New South Wales, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
David Lynch, Doppelgangers, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive
