Abstract

The human being in the receptive position before a work of art or spectacle of some sort—the “spectator”—is a perennial subject of philosophical concern. The aesthetic and ethical issues surrounding this subject have recently been elucidated by the French theorist, Jacques Rancière, in his essay, “The Emancipated Spectator.” This paper analyzes Rancière’s formulation of the main philosophical problem regarding the spectator, as well as his own tentative solution to it. Rancière’s thought is then brought into dialogue with Gabriel Marcel’s writings on the theater which, I will argue, provide a useful supplement to Rancière’s thought. The upshot will be, I Hope, a richer, fuller understanding of the phenomenon of the spectacle, and of the ethical predicament of the spectator.