Visual Theory in Antonioni’s Blow-Up and its Source, Cortázar’s “Las babas del diablo”: A Psychoanalytic Point of View

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Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007) based Blow-Up (1966) on Julio Cortázar’s (1914-1984) short story, “Las babas del diablo” (1959). But, it is difficult to see any similarities beyond the most obvious. More than anything, Cortázar’s “fantastic” short story doesn’t resemble Antonioni’s “existentialistic” and “absurd” film. But we can’t overlook the uncanny and anxious atmosphere in both works. When we see both works from a psychoanalytical point of view, we find that they have an oedipal scenario, and that both authors choose the photograph to represent the castration complex.
To understand the importance of the role of the photographs in both works, we must not overlook that both heroes see the same scene twice, but in different ways. They see it through the viewfinder at first, then in print. At that time, both photographs become like a movie, and their photographs give the heroes a traumatic experience. We can find here that these works give us a good understanding of a contemporary visual theory about the change of our visuality; from the visuality through the Renaissance perspective of painting to one through photography and cinema.
So, this paper regards both works as representations of their dreams told by free association, and tries to clarify the close relationship of both works and both authors’ common understanding of the photograph, by using a psychological theory.