Individual in Suspension: The Foreground as Desterritorialization in Gilles Deleuze

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the suspension of the process of individuation that occurs in the image-affect or close-up within the cinematic image. The main hypothesis is that, in order to express pure affect in the close-up, the individual must necessarily deterritorialize. In other words, there must be a vacating of individuation for the pure potentiality or virtuality to be expressed in the intensive visage of the image-affect. In essence, it is argued that the image-affect deterritorializes the individual to express what persists virtually within them. The close-up demands that the individual loses their significant individuality to become an intense figure that expresses affects. In the close-up, there is a capture of affecting intensities that disconnect the individual from their signifying function, propelling them into a deterritorialized disorganization that reveals an outside of the image-movement.