지젝과 <크라잉 게임>: 환상 가로지르기의 혁명 (The Revolution of Traversing the Fantasy in Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game)

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· 저자명 : 유현주

초록

This paper investigates whether the revolution of traversing the fantasy really occurs in Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game. Zizek claims that this film successfully transcends the libidinal economy of ‘courtly love’ (amour courtois). In the logic of courtly love, the relationship between the knight and the Lady is the same as the relationship of the subject-bondsman to his feudal master-sovereign. The knight is a victim of the Lady’s disavowal and the Lady, who is senseless, merciless, and exacting, has all the power to control their relationship. Because of the inherent impossibility of reaching the sublime object (the Lady), the knight can never directly access her and accomplish sexual reunion with her. Thus, the only thing he can do is to just detour around the Lady. However, in fact, the inaccessibility of the Lady is completely manipulated or fabricated for, in Zizek’s words, the knight’s most intimate desires or the total self-externalization of the masochist’s most intimate passion. To satisfy Lacanian death desire, although his Lady is easily accessible, the man intentionally postpones the final moment of sexual reunion with her. That is, the Lady loses all real substance and becomes nothing but an ‘abstract Ideal’ or a kind of ‘black hole’, i.e, an object of the knight’s desire in courtly love.
Zizek emphasizes that The Crying Game suggests the revolutionary variation on the motif of courtly love through ‘love as a metaphor’ that Fergus and Dil share. According to Zizek, in this film, the two sexes ultimately succeed in establishing a symmetrical, reciprocal, and voluntary partnership. Accepting heterosexual love as a product of male oppression, this film shows absolute and unconditional love between two characters, thereby transgressing the barriers of class, religion, race, and even sexual orientation/sexual identification. The revolutionary aspect of this film lies in the way in which it transcends the logic of courtly love, not denouncing this symbolic structure.
Yet, this paper attempts to raise the question about whether a new ‘formula’ capable of replacing the matrix of courtly love is truly invented in Jordan’s film, which incorporates many problematic images and acts indicating that Fergus still maintains an asymmetrical non-relationship with Dil and never gives up making Dil his inaccessible fantasy object. As such, this paper aims to prove that, regarding the issues of racial and sexual discrimination, The Crying Game contributes to reinforcing the stereotyped images of the racial and sexual Other, Dil, by continuously relegating her to the place of the ‘Thing’ or ‘Object a.’ Like the Lady in courtly love, Dil—deprived of every real substance—plays a role as Fergus’s femme fatale. As Zizek points out, no difference exists between the Lady and the femme fatale in that both of these seductive women serve as an ‘inhuman partner’ or a ‘traumatic object’ with whom no symmetrical relationship is possible. This signifies that this film does not clearly depict a sexual revolution of traversing the ideology of courtly love.
In addition, merely being fascinated by a new fantasy about the new revolutionary structure—traversing ‘beyond’ the structure of courtly love while remaining ‘within’ this symbolic structure—Zizek seems to make this film itself ‘a fetish object’ or the ‘Thing,’ not trying to determine what is lacking in this film. Considering all of these aspects, The Crying Game cannot deserve to be prized as a film that overcomes the ideology of courtly love and suggests a new sexual subversion beyond the patriarchal symbolic structure.

영어초록

This paper investigates whether the revolution of traversing the fantasy really occurs in Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game. Zizek claims that this film successfully transcends the libidinal economy of ‘courtly love’ (amour courtois). In the logic of courtly love, the relationship between the knight and the Lady is the same as the relationship of the subject-bondsman to his feudal master-sovereign. The knight is a victim of the Lady’s disavowal and the Lady, who is senseless, merciless, and exacting, has all the power to control their relationship. Because of the inherent impossibility of reaching the sublime object (the Lady), the knight can never directly access her and accomplish sexual reunion with her. Thus, the only thing he can do is to just detour around the Lady. However, in fact, the inaccessibility of the Lady is completely manipulated or fabricated for, in Zizek’s words, the knight’s most intimate desires or the total self-externalization of the masochist’s most intimate passion. To satisfy Lacanian death desire, although his Lady is easily accessible, the man intentionally postpones the final moment of sexual reunion with her. That is, the Lady loses all real substance and becomes nothing but an ‘abstract Ideal’ or a kind of ‘black hole’, i.e, an object of the knight’s desire in courtly love.
Zizek emphasizes that The Crying Game suggests the revolutionary variation on the motif of courtly love through ‘love as a metaphor’ that Fergus and Dil share. According to Zizek, in this film, the two sexes ultimately succeed in establishing a symmetrical, reciprocal, and voluntary partnership. Accepting heterosexual love as a product of male oppression, this film shows absolute and unconditional love between two characters, thereby transgressing the barriers of class, religion, race, and even sexual orientation/sexual identification. The revolutionary aspect of this film lies in the way in which it transcends the logic of courtly love, not denouncing this symbolic structure.
Yet, this paper attempts to raise the question about whether a new ‘formula’ capable of replacing the matrix of courtly love is truly invented in Jordan’s film, which incorporates many problematic images and acts indicating that Fergus still maintains an asymmetrical non-relationship with Dil and never gives up making Dil his inaccessible fantasy object. As such, this paper aims to prove that, regarding the issues of racial and sexual discrimination, The Crying Game contributes to reinforcing the stereotyped images of the racial and sexual Other, Dil, by continuously relegating her to the place of the ‘Thing’ or ‘Object a.’ Like the Lady in courtly love, Dil—deprived of every real substance—plays a role as Fergus’s femme fatale. As Zizek points out, no difference exists between the Lady and the femme fatale in that both of these seductive women serve as an ‘inhuman partner’ or a ‘traumatic object’ with whom no symmetrical relationship is possible. This signifies that this film does not clearly depict a sexual revolution of traversing the ideology of courtly love.
In addition, merely being fascinated by a new fantasy about the new revolutionary structure—traversing ‘beyond’ the structure of courtly love while remaining ‘within’ this symbolic structure—Zizek seems to make this film itself ‘a fetish object’ or the ‘Thing,’ not trying to determine what is lacking in this film. Considering all of these aspects, The Crying Game cannot deserve to be prized as a film that overcomes the ideology of courtly love and suggests a new sexual subversion beyond the patriarchal symbolic structure.

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