Shame and Jealousy: Film and the Jouissance of the Other
A primal scene of a kind in the theory of film is the moment in Sartre’s Being and Nothingness where he describes the voyeur surprised at the keyhole by approaching footsteps. Sartre’s account of the situation foregrounds the ontological relations established by the emotions of jealousy and shame that the scenario occasions. These emotions, he argues, suppose an irreducible relation to the other. I want to use this scenario to explore the affective structure of the spectator’s intrusive fascination with the image of the other, in particular the body of the other. I will explore the visual dynamics occasioned by jealousy and shame and ask if they can provide the basis for a theory of spectatorship. I will also make reference to Jacques-Alain Miller’s proposition that ‘Jouissance is precisely what grounds the alterity of the Other’. Shame and jealousy can be considered as affects or emotions which relate precisely to the vision or imagining of the jouissance of the other or the witnessing of one’s own ‘enjoyment’ by another. I want on the one hand to explore this structure using filmic examples, and to explore to what extent it can contribute to a philosophy of film.
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