Date: Thu, 23 Jun 94 08:43:08 EDT
From: ma-AT-dsd.camb.inmet.com (Malgosia Askanas)
To: film-theory-AT-world.std.com
Subject: Re: the uses of theory


Alan wrote:

> > 4) Are the "humanities" trying to replicate the cultural success of such 
> > language? To denaturalize, as it were? (Or are these two incompatible 
> > notions?)
> > 
> Yes - that way lies power/academic success/messy but promising erotic 
> relationships with students and other faculty members - in short, the 
> unravelling of desire.

Absolutely, but this sentence does itself an injustice in its focus on 
academia.  I would say: theory/jargon is a form of the erotic.  Every
theory delineates an erotic playing-ground which has its own inclusions, 
exclusions, vectors of power, dominations, surrenders. 


- malgosia