{"id":2014,"date":"2024-12-08T19:21:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T19:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/?p=2014"},"modified":"2024-12-08T19:21:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-08T19:21:43","slug":"which-discourse-theory-lacan-emergency-capitalism-paranoia-fabio-vighi-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/?p=2014","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Under the Skin&#8217; Analysis | Olly Cutler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Event date and location<\/span>: 31 October 2024, Online (Zoom)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<section id=\"gm19f06ea\" class=\"wp-block-gutentor-m3 alignwide section-gm19f06ea gutentor-module gutentor-container-cover\"><div class=\"grid-container\">\n<div style=\"height:44px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zbqemURJZbE?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Video Sections:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zbqemURJZbE&amp;t=0s\">0:00<\/a> &#8211; Intro <br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zbqemURJZbE&amp;t=77s\">01:17<\/a> &#8211; Talk <br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zbqemURJZbE&amp;t=2929s\">48:49<\/a> &#8211; Discussion with Calum and audience<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About the Event<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a connection between the difficulties of representation belonging to psychoanalysis and those belonging to cinema, which the dynamic of Lacan\u2019s notion of&nbsp;<em>das Ding<\/em>&nbsp;(1960\/2008) can help unlock. In this presentation, I provide a reading of the desire staged in the 2013 British science fiction film&nbsp;<em>Under the Skin<\/em>&nbsp;(dir. Jonathan Glazer, 2013). The film stars Scarlett Johansson as an alluring, alien instantiation of Creed\u2019s (1986) \u2018monstrous feminine\u2019. Johansson\u2019s character, like other representations of the monstrous, illuminates the (ostensibly) contradictory movements of desire and disgust.&nbsp;<em>Monstrum<\/em>, the etymological origin of \u2018monster\u2019, refers to a type of warning, a divine\/evil omen indicating misfortune, or a portent. The closely linked&nbsp;<em>monstare<\/em>&nbsp;means \u2018to show\u2019. What, then, does Johansson\u2019s anxiety-inducing monster show, reveal, or warn us about? The answer can be found in Glazer\u2019s representation of the alien\u2019s lair which, I argue, holds the key to the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This lair can be read as having structural and aesthetic parallels with&nbsp;<em>das Ding.<\/em>&nbsp;If this is so, the acts that unfold in relation to the alien\u2019s body and lair are interpretable as functioning as analogues for the&nbsp;<em>Thing<\/em>\u2019s operations. There is always something incognizable in the alien and her lair towards which desire moves, and when we get too close to the impossible&nbsp;<em>jouissance<\/em>&nbsp;that an encounter with&nbsp;<em>das Ding<\/em>&nbsp;promises, everything begins to unravel. At the same time, the film warns us about the devastating consequences pertaining to the collision between phallic logic and \u2018consent culture\u2019. How, the film asks us, can women simultaneously articulate their desire, while contending with the patriarchist presumption that men hold the answer to women\u2019s lack, to their&nbsp;<em>Che Vuoi?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the film, the alien\u2019s body demarcates what is outside of acceptable behaviour or being, and how&nbsp;<em>jouissance<\/em>&nbsp;can be accessed through transgression, but only manifests vis-\u00e0-vis a paradoxical&nbsp;<em>lack<\/em>&nbsp;of satisfaction (Chiesa, 2024). Inhabiting this space, it is impossible to meet a real subject: like the idealized Lady of courtly love, the alien is nothing, always remaining veiled and out of reach, elevated to avoid the horrific encounter with&nbsp;<em>das Ding<\/em>. The alien\u2019s&nbsp;<em>body<\/em>&nbsp;as limit, therefore, reveals how the Law, prohibition and desire operate and how the \u2018pornographic trope\u2019 of female sexuality indicates little more than the deficiency of fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About the Speaker<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Olly Cutler\u00a0<\/strong>is a PhD candidate at Edinburgh Napier University, working under Professors Calum Neill and Louise Milne. As a researcher, he has examined critical literacy and inclusive educational practice, and he has taught literature and media studies in schools across Scotland. His current research applies Freudo-Lacanian concepts to a study of film to examine the paradoxical spectatorial effects resulting from the representation of monstrous feminine characters.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Event date and location: 31 October 2024, Online (Zoom)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recordings","category-video"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2015,"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions\/2015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacaninscotland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}