Fathom

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/2v23vt604

Abstract

To accomplish the task of saying a few things about this work which presents me with elusive visual and psychological phenomena I feel it is necessary to abandon any pretence to objectivity and rather affirm my own experience of the work. This is necessary for two reasons: 1) Anyone's experience of this work is personal, more so than of most work because it requires intimacy with an image in the work, and perhaps with an image in one's mind, of the absent other. Why pretend I can speak for others? 2) This work is inseparable from the emotions of love, and theory simply will not do justice to movements so subtle, particular, and contradictory. I have written this paper in the first person and in fragments to remind you that these are utterances of my experiences and to forestall any attempts at theorizing the contradictory solitude that is love. These utterances are decidedly male, and perhaps heterosexual. Take them for what they are and no more -- only your own experience of such matters is of great importance. *This introduction is based on ideas from Roland Barthes introduction to Discourse of a Lover.

Creator