Like Spectator, Like Subject: The Cinematic Framing of the Dialectics contra Object-Oriented-Ontology Debate

Abstract

This article proposes that the contemporary philosophical disagreement between dialectics and Object Oriented Ontology should be understood as a repetition of a debate in Lacanian film theory which began in the 1980s. What is at stake in both exchanges is the critical relationship to subjectivity—its reduction to an ideological illusion or the radical reappraisal of the concept. Following an initial survey of the key moments and theorists in both contentions, the affinity between the philosophical work of Quentin Meillassoux and the film theory of Christian Metz and Jean-Louis Baudry is considered. While distinct in their approach, these thinkers are united by an emphasis on subjective de-exceptionalization, each pinpointing a moment of hubris in which the subject assumes themselves reflected in the world, or cinematic image. For Meillassoux, Metz, and Baudry, this mirroring ultimately has pernicious effects, as the material preconditions of subjectivity are left unaccounted for, and illusion is accepted as real. In this respect, they share a critique of idealism. In their respective critiques, the work of Joan Copjec and Todd McGowan insists upon the cinematic screen and ontology as conflictual sites, characterizing the cinema spectator (and by proxy, the philosophical subject) as a rupture within ideology rather than running parallel to it. From this dialectical standpoint, the duality between idealism and materialism is sublated through the recognition that both positions intrinsically rely upon each other. Placing these debates side by side elucidates the interconnected histories and theoretical concerns of cinema and philosophy, particularly within cinematic and philosophical idealism.