Fanny Marie Dobler

The thesis Woman as Imperative: Killing the Angel in the House investigates the imperative function and stability of the category of “woman” in Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto (1967) and Helene von Druskowitz’ Der Mann als logische und sittliche Unmöglichkeit (1905). Accompanying the written thesis, I developed a documentary video portrait that reflects on the construction of character and the possibilities and limits of representation. Moving between observational footage and interview situations, the video attempts to approach a subject through the lens of gender while remaining attentive to the moment in which the subject resists, exceeds, or slips away from categorization. Between attribution and insistence, the work searches for forms of authenticity and examines the instability inherent in any attempt to capture gendered subjectivity.