Vision, Voice, and Cinematic Presence
Author: Nakassis, CV; Weidman, A
Source: DIFFERENCES-A JOURNAL OF FEMINIST CULTURAL STUDIES, 29 (3):107-136; 10.1215/10407391-7266494 DEC 1 2018
Publication Type: Article
Abstract: Anxieties around the appearance and audition of the female body and voice in Tamil cinema reveal a semiotic ideology of the image that does not fit neatly within the idea of cinema as representation. Instead, this ideology takes filmic images to be acts that performatively presence the actresses and singers who animate them, in other words morally charged acts for which such animators are held accountable. Drawing on linguistic anthropology and film theory, this article explores vision-image and sound-image as distinct modes of performative presence, noting the division of semiotic labor between them as well as their interaction and interdependence. The theoretical project, relevant to cinema and related media more generally, argues for the need to attend to those processes and factors that enable the performativity of images to be either elaborated and institutionalized or played down and attacked in any particular historical, cultural, or political context.