Współczesne studia nad kulturą wizualną: poststrukturalistyczne klisze i krytyka anachroniczna

Abstract

The article investigates the discourse of contemporary visual culture studies informed by the paradigmatic shift in the field of humanities, known as pictorial turn. Drawing upon the concepts outlined by William J. Mitchell and Mieke Bal, the author argues against the possibility of ahistorical simplifications that might occur when thinking in terms of pictorial turn comes into a growing prominence within the discipline. Certain comparison is drafted as a warning; employing the field of visuality as the universal theoretical basis, without taking into account the specificity of the historical experience, would be parallel to the poststructuralist hegemony of textuality. Similar argument addresses the examples of discourse on visuality built upon models of primarily textual analysis. Therefore, the author emphasizes the necessity to reach out to the earlier modern theory on visual culture proposed by Aby Warburg and Walter Benjamin, who were investigating the themes (or emplying the methods) that has been largely overlooked and / or shifted to the margins.