Visual Cultures and Critical Theory (Arnold Publication)

156 Pages·2003·3.55 MB·English

by  Patrick Fuery

For Noah and Morgan - our lovely little angels

First published in Great Britain in 2003 by
Arnold, a member of the Hodder Headline Group,
338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH
http://www.arnoldpublishers.com
Distributed in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY10016
© 2003 Patrick Fuery and Kelli Fuery
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
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are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency: 90 Tottenham Court Road,
London W1T 4LP.
The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and
accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the author[s] nor the publisher
can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publicatim Data
A catalogue record for this tide is available from the British Library
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalog record for this title is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0 340 80747 4 (hb)
ISBN 0 340 80748 2 (pb)
2 3 4 5 6 7 89 10
Typeset by Phoenix Photosetting, Chatham, Kent
Printed and bound in India.
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Cont ents
AcRnouledgmts vii
...
A Note on Images Vlll
Hyperlinkr ix
Introduction xi
1 Investing in power and the body: Foucault and the visual 1
INVESTING POWER IN THE IMAGE 1
Questioning the status of the individual: struggles of power 2
Kant and Foucault: investing the power 7
The image: the invitation 8
The subject: the refusal 9
THIS IS NOT A BODY: POWERFUL AND SICK BODIES 10
Powerful bodies 10
Sick bodies 13
Investing power in the imaged body 14
Constructed senses 17
2 Seeing the self in the Baroque mirror: Lacan and the visual 22
The metaphoricity of the mirror 22
The story of the three prisoners 25
The reflecting image and the self 27
St Teresa and the gangsters 28
Narcissism and the ego 32
The Baroque rose kiss 35
The narcissistic erotics of celebrity 37
3 Transgression, abjection and the body: Kristeva and the visual
43
ABJECTION 44
Some terms 45
The unnameable, phobia and revolt 46
Revolt 48
THE BODY 51
The speaking subject in visual culture 51
The body visual culture 52
and
V
Visual Cultures and Critical Theoryotry
The Symbolic order, the speaking subject and the body 54
Questioning the Symbolic: the deject body 55
Corps propre: bodies and abject bodies 56
The unclean 58
THE SÉMIOTIQUE, THE SYMBOLIC, AND VISUAL CULTURES 59
Kristeva's chora: strange space 61
4 From parasitology to spectres: Derrida and the visual 64
LOCATING DERRIDA 64
Parasitology/virology 65
The torment of internal drifting: terrorism 67
At the limit 69
On the double 76
Visibility being eaten away: the spectre and the mirror 78
5 Spectator, culture, image: Barthes and the visual 86
THE SPECTATOR AND CULTURE 87
The canvas: Roland Barthes 87
SEMIOTICS OF THE IMAGE 90
Narrative structures 90
Cultural narratives and the image 93
Punk as cultural narrative 95
Re-viewing the canvas: recognizing codes 96
ACT OF READING AND THE FORMATION OF THE TEXT 97
The rise of the image 97
Fragments and codes 99
READER AND CREATION OF THE IMAGE 100
The spectator and visual culture 100
The social order of the image: seeking pleasure 103
Studium and punctum 104
6 Invisibility and hallucination: the state of the image in the
postmodern world 109
The image as rhizome 110
Simulacra 118
Invisibility and the outcast of the image 123
Bibliography 129
Index 133
vi
Acknowledgements
Many people are involved with the writing of any book and this is very much the case
here. Our publishers were supportive and positive about the idea of this book, which was
encouraging in all the appropriate stages of writing. In particular, we would like to thank
Lesley Riddle for her initial help and friendly manner in dealing with all our queries and
requests. Her suggestions at the commencement of this project were insightful and
welcome. Our thanks go to Alexia Chan, who provided a smooth transition towards the
end of the project. She offered understanding just where publishers need to without any
compromise to the progress of the work. Thanks also to Colin Goodlad for his warmth,
support and good humour.
In terms of academic stimulus and general banter, there are several whom we would
like to thank. To our colleagues at Royal Holloway, University of London and at Curtin
University, for their support. For the love of film, art, television and generally looking we
thank Sam Tarlington, who happily spent many a night on Oxford Street just watching;
Robyn Wagner who possesses a similar tenacity and enthusiasm for the saga of the screen
as her sister; Margaret Mills who, through her friendship and care, has always given much
in all of our discussions and of herself. Also to our families - their love, encouragement
and interest in this book helped it move along.
And finally, for our little Noah - who without knowing it provided an unshakeable
deadline and a much-anticipated sight on which to set our eyes.
VII
A Note on Images
A book on visual cultures inevitably needs to refer to a great many images. However, we
felt that any attempt to include all the images would be unwieldy and, perhaps even more
disadvantageous, might restrict the concepts and issues to very specific examples.
Therefore where possible we have included a reference to a web page where the images
can be found. These will often direct the reader to other examples, which is very much in
keeping with the spirit of the book. We have also included a list of some useful gallery
pages and film reference sites. These will provide more examples and sources of reference.
VIII
Hyperlinks
Galleries referred to throughout the book:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/collection/default.htm
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/default.htm
http://www.artchive.com/ftp_site.htm
http://www.mcu.es/prado/index_eng.html
http://www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm
http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/
http://www.uffizi.firenze.it/welcomeE.html
http://www.reemst.com/calvin_and_hobbes/
For all films referred to in all chapters:
http://www.imdb.com/
IX