Modes of Perception: Visuality, Culpability, and Innocence

[Introduction]: “The essays in the previous section address the ways Egoyan’s work has spoken to his own cultural heritage and in particular to the enduring legacies of the Armenian genocide on later generations spread throughout the diaspora. Through this lens, the authors uncover the political and historical dynamics informing Egoyan’s recurring negotiations of identity, his explorations of experiences of dislocation and alienation, and his representations of missing persons. The essays in this section consider more universal qualities of Egoyan’s work, showing how, even as they are deeply rooted in a specific history and politics, Egoyan’s films and installations speak to fundamental human issues. Set in what he describes as “operatic” scenarios, Egoyan’s characters are always driven by powerful needs. The manner in which they strive to bridge the distance between what they have and what they desire constantly interferes with the attainment of whatever or whomever they covet. Egoyan’s characters thus take us to the fine line between power and perversion, innocence and culpability, where thwarted desires turn voyeuristic, fetishistic, and even incestuous. Drawing on the intersections of psychoanalysis, feminism, and film theory, the authors consider typically Egoyanesque tropes such as the substitution of one person for another or for one’s past self, of image for reality, or of the part for the whole, connecting these substitutive gestures to complex ethical and epistemological questions that often implicate the viewer’s own desires.”