Dangerous Supplements and the Envy of the Gaze

Abstract

The theorising of the relationship between film and the spectator has become increasingly more complex in recent years. This has partly to do with the development of certain theoretical approaches which emphasise the role of the spectator as an active agent in the construction of the text, as well as a development of those theories that focus on positions of subj ectivity and intersubjective processes. This has developed out of a complex set of theories that have radically rethought the whole idea of what constitutes subjectivity. It is these ideas on the subject that will inform much of the ensuing discussion. To work through some of these developments this chapter will consider two distinct perspectives: some of the key models of the gaze developed by Lacan, and a number of ideas from Derrida’s works of deconstruction. We have already encountered aspects of the first of these in the previous chapter. However, there are a number of very significant ideas and models which, for various reasons, have not been nearly as extensively developed in the area of film studies. Similarly, Derrida’s theories have been much less systematically examined and applied to film, but there are a number of ideas that offer a radical rethinking of how we might approach film itself.