What Is Visible When Acting? Acting-Out, “Passage à l’Acte” and  the Dialectics of the Gaze in Phenomenology  and Psychoanalytic Theory

Cristian BODEA

doi:10.24193/subbdrama.2021.1.03

Authors

Cristian BODEA Department of Social and Human Research, Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca Branch. Email: cristian.bodea@academia-cj.ro

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbdrama.2021.1.03

Keywords:

act, desire, gaze, objectify, the Other, presence without assignable present, the Real, (in)visible.

Abstract

The paper approaches acting from a phenomenological and psychoanalytic point of view. It sheds light on the intrinsic (i.e., invisible) resorts involved when someone is playing a role – or, better yet, assumes a role. In order to make these mechanisms visible, the paper relies on the premise that acting always involves an act. Using the Lacanian theory of acts, I demonstrate that there is a real process taking place when assuming a role, namely when the subject needs to objectify himself. This process can be traced back as far as the “time” of a pre-existent gaze. The aim of the paper is to substantiate the idea that it is necessary for the gaze to enter a dialectics in order for the subject to find its objective place. For illustration, two works of art are used: the performance The Artist is Present by Marina Abramović and the movie A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes.

Author Biography

Cristian BODEA, Department of Social and Human Research, Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca Branch. Email: cristian.bodea@academia-cj.ro

Cristian Bodea is a researcher in philosophy at the Department of Social and Human Research, Romanian Academy. He also teaches Introduction to Phenomenology at the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca. His research concerns phenomenology, philosophies of subjectivity and embodiment, phenomenology of language, psychoanalysis, on which he published numerous articles. In 2018 he published the book titled Hiatus. Problema fenomenologică a inconștientului (Hiatus. The Phenomenological Problem of the Unconscious) where he makes a connection between phenomenology and psychoanalysis in order to widen both the concept of language and the unconscious. In 2020 he co-edited with Delia Popa the collective volume titled Describing the Unconscious. Phenomenological Perspectives on the Subject of Psychoanalysis which aims at contributing to an in-depth understanding of the relationship between phenomenology and psychoanalysis.

References

Books:

Gallagher, Shaun and Dan Zahavi. The Phenomenological Mind. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Izcovich, Anita. La femme, la lettre, et l’image. Paris: Stilus, 2016.

Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book 1, Freud’s Papers on Technique, 1953-1954. New York: WW Norton & Company, 1991.

Lacan, Jacques. The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-1955 (Book II). New York: WW Norton & Company, 1991.

Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2007.

Lacan, Jacques. Transference: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VIII. Cambridge: Polity, 2015.

Lacan, Jacques. Anxiety: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book X. Cambridge: Polity, 2016.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. The Visible and the Invisible. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1968.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. New York: Routledge, 2013.

Richir, Marc. Phénoménologie en esquisses. Nouvelles foundations. Grenoble: Millon, 2000.

Web pages:

Alderink, Nick. Just Be Yourself: A Quick Peek at A Woman Under the Influence, accessed January 8, 2021, https://www.michtheater.org/2017/04/24/191665/

Images:

Figure 1 <https://virtualartistresidency.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/artist_is_present_sitting_with_marina.jpg>

Figure 2 < https://www.artmonthly.co.uk/images/uploads/marina-abramovic-the-artist-is-present%402x.jpg >

Figure 3 < https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DwH9h4HKAxs/hqdefault.jpg >

Figure 4 < https://offscreen.com/images/influence-stand-up-for-me.jpg >

Figure 5 < https://offscreen.com/images/influence-stand-up-for-me2.jpg >