The Gift and Visual Culture

The gift represents one of the most complex issues in cultural relations. It defines and pervades individual and social interaction; it forms the basis of our everyday life; it is embedded in power, subjectivity, pleasure, and meaning. The Gift and Visual Culture explores the relationship between the image and systems of exchange. It explores the constructions of the gift in psychoanalysis, cultural theory, and philosophy. Key theorists examined include Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, D.W. Winnicott, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, and Julia Kristeva. It draws on a wide range of visual sources, in particular cinema, photography, and painting to examine the relationship of the image to the gift. Key themes and concepts explored include the double, exchange, spatial and temporal constructions, transference, the viral, and the spectral. The book problematises the act of giving and the status of giftness. In doing so it addresses one of the fundamental issues of exchange: is the gift possible? The interdiscplinary nature of this book makes it an invaluable resource for anyone studying visual culture, critical theory and cultural studies.