Immersiveness and Difference in Cinema and the Arts

Abstract

This article addresses the tensional relationship between two concepts frequently used in theoretical discussions about aesthetic experience and the arts: difference and immersiveness. The concept of difference can be understood from the perspective of the novelty that characterizes the avant-gardes, or it can be recognized in the movement of deconstruction of meanings and appearances through deviation and deferral, or in the context of the artist’s subversion, political dissent and revolutionary spirit, or even in the estrangement and the “distancing effect” that potentially summon the spectator to be a participant or co-author. In general, the difference tends to oppose the passivity and the alienating character of immersion. From the perspective of a phenomenology of reception, this tension between difference and immersiveness founds a theoretical framework that can help us interpret other recurring dualities, such as the distinction between informative discourse and performative discourse or even between art and entertainment.