Where Otters Exist as Utters

Abstract

Electronic and print media coverage of the 1989 Alaskan oil spill flooded the public with stark images of a ravaged environment. Scenes of oil-choked otters, dying birds and polluted coastlines captured the violence of a major ecological disaster. This essay looks beneath the surfaces of such disturbing images into how the images themselves effect the unconscious. The theories of Saussure, Lacan and Derrida are employed in interpreting how the signifying forces of postmodernism work upon our being and contribute-to other-and self-knowledge. The essay is critical of pedagogical systems, particularly those based in Piagetian theory, that dismiss the visceral essence inherent in the world of images and unconscious desires. Suggestions for a new form of pedagogy are offered.