<i>Her</i>: can an operational system take the subject’s place?

Keywords: subject, other, emptiness, object

Abstract

We intend to analyze Spike Jonze’s movie Her following the psychoanalysis and some contributions from the linguistics of enunciation. The film is about a futuristic society, where the main character, Leonard, is immersed in an empty place, which he tries to fulfill with games and virtual relationships, in a vain attempt not to confront with the structural castration. The title, an oblique pronoun (her), indicates the impossibility, once her cannot be a subject neither enter into the intersubjectivity change. Therefore, we find an impossible of being a subject, which Samantha tries to overcome putting herself as an absolute universal subject. Samantha is a voice without a body. Is it possible to exist a subject without a biological body, as is the case for Samantha? We consider that the body, beyond its symbolic and imaginary aspects, is constituted also by matter, that is, it is determined also by biology. The system is scheduled to respond to its user’s demands, and it fails, since there is no object for the desire, and, when something tries to replace it, the anguish emerges. When Samantha’s voice ceases to resonate, Theodore perceives that there is no Other’s Other which can guarantee completeness, and that it is in this emptiness – the emptiness of the lack – that he is able to authorize his own voice.

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Author Biography

Leda Verdiani Tfouni, Universidade de São Paulo
Mestranda pelo departamento de psicologia - FFCLRP - USP
Published
2019-05-31
How to Cite
Tfouni, L. V., Bartijotto, J., & Abrantes, A. R. P. (2019). <i>Her</i&gt;: can an operational system take the subject’s place?. Acta Scientiarum. Language and Culture, 41(1), e44145. https://doi.org/10.4025/actascilangcult.v41i1.44145
Section
Linguistics

 

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0.1
2019CiteScore
 
 
45th percentile
Powered by  Scopus