부산대학교 도서관

I. These days the discourses of sexuality are expanding and exploding, so we can see their concrete appearances in various media. This essay gives attention to this phenomena, makes the discourses of sexuality in the contemporary culture a subject of philosophical study and tries to make an exemplary analysis. For this work I introduce the viewpoint of ‘sexual politics’ because I think it enables for us to surmount the difficulties of the traditional(biological or metaphysical) views on human sexuality and to understand human sexuality as a historical and social construct. Therefore ‘the sexuality’ in this essay is neither the ‘sex’ in biological sense nor the sexual actions or relations in usual sense, but a totality that is composed of what we call ‘the sexual’. I select some films as material for more concrete analysis. I think the film is one of the best popular text in the contemporary culture and in the film human sexuality is dealt with very abundantly and diversely. II. ‘Sexual Politics’ is in a word an insight into the ambiguity of human sexuality that is constructed by many micro-powers, moreover an insight into the structure and meaning of what we call ‘the sexual’, that is instincts, desires, relations, customs, concrete actions and ideas. From this point of view I name the working of micro-powers ‘the intervention of the Other’ and describe this in two aspects. Firstly, I select two erotic movies and see how the power makes the meaning of human sexuality in what figures and with what discourse in these movies. Secondly, I discuss what role the power plays in making sensuality or eroticism in the film. III. For analysing how the power make the meaning of human sexuality, I select two movies, “In the Realm of the Senses” and “Last tango in Paris”. Both are naked erotic movies and deal with the private sexual relations, but in some senses can be interpreted as having the political messages. Besides in these movies human sexuality is not described as something plain or beautiful but is expressed as something extreme and self-destroying. I think the real meaning of these aspects can be understood well only in relation to working of the power that we cannot see directly in the screen. The discourse of sexuality in “In the Realm of the Senses” is a kind of discourse of pleasure, but in fact the pleasure expressed in the extreme sadomasochism is a metaphor and metonymy of the power. But in this movie the critic or reflection of that power is weakened because it is described as something very esthetic. On the contrary, the discourse of sexuality in “Last tango in Paris” is a kind of discourse of negation. This negation is directly embodied in the self-reflection through self-negation, and indirectly embodied in the cynicism and disillusion at the hidden power. IV. We have to deal with another theme, ‘the sensuality’ when we discuss human sexuality in films. The sensuality much influenced by visual images seems like foreign to working of the power. But if we analyse the structure itself that makes the sensuality, we will find that the intervention of the power is very important here also. The sensuality is made through meeting of the body and the gaze, and it is not the body but the gaze that is important here. The gaze produces the sensuality according to the established rules, the strategies, and the encoded pleasures. It is usually said that the sensuality is made by the gaze(voyeurism) of the men, but in fact the men are not the real subjects. Of course the beneficiaries are the men who can enjoy the sensuality in the patriarchic culture, but they also participate only passively in the game that is controlled by the invisible micro-powers. Therefore to see the erotic movies is nothing but a passive play that doesn't allow any self-reflection. V. The sexuality is not a subject of simple curiosity but a semiotic index that enables us to reflect more deeply upon what the human being is and how the situation surrounding them is. This essay also have some values only if it serves such reflection. The result of the philosophical consideration is as follows: Human sexuality cannot be understood as a immutable essence but have to be understood as a intricate construct that is made by many social, historical and political factors or a complicated network in which many micro-powers interact one another. Many discourses of sexuality in the contemporary culture are pillars and crossbeams of that construct. And the insight into this fact is the beginning point of sexual politics. The descriptions of sexuality in the film or the discourses expressed in those descriptions are metaphors or metonymies of the power. And they sometimes beautify the power in secret or sometimes reflect upon it sarcastically. In this aspect the sexuality in the film need a literal semiotic reading. How is the situation in the case of the sensuality? The influence of the power that make the sensuality works much more strongly in the real sexual relations, but there is something for us to do in this real realm. We have to reflect upon and resist the existing power and we can make the new sexual relations and the new mode of communication. If there are any films that deal with human sexuality sincerely, they must be these ones that deal with these problems. There cannot be any pure aesthetics of eroticism in the film. Because the sensual images and the discriptions of human sexuality will get some values indirectly only if they are connected to the reflections upon the various meanings of the sexuality and the power that works in it.