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yuefei's review
[Monoskop]
This is a great, short-but-dense read that builds up a semi-coherent understanding of what has been termed "Cartesian perspectivalism" (which becomes more familiar and easy to understand as the text progresses from one essay to another), identified as the primary scopic regime of Modernity in the West, and its various interventions or disruptions that are also disruptions of the congealed subject/object positions that is immanent to this perspectivalism. The criticism aimed at this book (and at a great amount of academic and theoretical texts) is understandable, but honestly I think this is a read that is incredibly rewarding if you take up the challenge (knowing nothing about Heidegger and phenomenology, and barely any Lacan, all of whom are mentioned throughout, I still got a lot out of this).
Bryson's text suffers a little from being placed within this context of interventions, but his emphasis on the fact that his essay was not an attempt to be historical clears things up.
Rose's essay is probably the most difficult and relevant text here. In it, she poses the issues with which postmodernism has been analysed/diagnosed (think of the major texts by Jameson, Lyotard and Deleuze & Guattari). I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be returning to her thoughts regarding the paradox of identification for politically-charged images more than a few times.
This is a great, short-but-dense read that builds up a semi-coherent understanding of what has been termed "Cartesian perspectivalism" (which becomes more familiar and easy to understand as the text progresses from one essay to another), identified as the primary scopic regime of Modernity in the West, and its various interventions or disruptions that are also disruptions of the congealed subject/object positions that is immanent to this perspectivalism. The criticism aimed at this book (and at a great amount of academic and theoretical texts) is understandable, but honestly I think this is a read that is incredibly rewarding if you take up the challenge (knowing nothing about Heidegger and phenomenology, and barely any Lacan, all of whom are mentioned throughout, I still got a lot out of this).
Bryson's text suffers a little from being placed within this context of interventions, but his emphasis on the fact that his essay was not an attempt to be historical clears things up.
Rose's essay is probably the most difficult and relevant text here. In it, she poses the issues with which postmodernism has been analysed/diagnosed (think of the major texts by Jameson, Lyotard and Deleuze & Guattari). I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be returning to her thoughts regarding the paradox of identification for politically-charged images more than a few times.
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