Nutu Incarnate Word Inscribed Flesh Speech Derrida Lacan Text chapter (original) (raw)

The scope of this book is to explore the contours of ‘identity’ as a decentred, fragmented work of the subject through ‘identification’ with elements of visual, legible texts. Since it is the ‘subject-of-language’ that interests this author, it investigates the theory that identities are constructs of the reiterative power of discourse to create that which it also names and ‘orders’; that identities are determined in and through ‘difference’ and thus inherently ‘dislocated’—dependent upon an ‘outside’ that both denies them and provides the premise of their prospect; and that subjects are ‘interpellated’ by, or ‘sutured’ to, the subject positions made available in discourse through the function of the unconscious. As the Bible continues its influence on society and the formation of subject positions, biblical texts are re-interpreted, recycled within many discourses. Nutu follows the fragmented afterlives of John’s Prologue and their different discursive effects on subject formation (with a particular focus on feminine ‘I’s) through postmodern film, aided by contemporary theoretical currents.