Introduction to the Theory of the Image: Narcissus and the Other in the Mirror

Abstract

The youth dies, lost in the lovelorn contemplation of his own reflection in the water’s surface. He exhales his despair at being unable to reach this ‘shadow of a reflected image’, namely, his own face.1 Then, according to the poem: ‘O utinam a nostro secedere corpore possem!’ A literal translation of which might be: ‘Oh! that I am not able to separate myself from our body.’ ote that the text says ‘our body’ rather than ‘my body.’n other words, Narcissus addressed his own image as though it were another person with whom he nevertheless shared the same body. In so doing, he established the indissociable, indestructible, bond between body and image.

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