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Catttt Posted 6 years ago
Grammar

Specular imperatives and double binds

1. Does "as an iconic entity" refer to "the body" or "the image"?


2. Does "specular imperatives and double binds of dominant visuality" mean "the two main elements of the dominant visual culture"?


3. What does "a male voyeur en travesti" mean? According to Google Translate it means "a transvestite voyeur male", but "transvestite" does not make sense in this context.


Context:

According to art historian Norman Bryson, Interim (an artwork by Mary Kelly) offers us criss-crossings of the different registers of the sign – icon, symbol, index – in order to avoid the stasis of the narcissistic mode of identification that tends to bolster up our fantasies of wholeness and completeness. Rather than the body being soldered to the image as an iconic entity, instead a space opens up beyond the visual register which ‘points the spectator towards what is nonspecular in the field of vision. It is here that the female spectator may be able to escape the specular imperatives and double binds of dominant visuality: to be either an object (an image, an icon) or a voyeur (a male voyeur en travesti ).’

  

Top answer

Bryson is using a lot of jargon, and he is pushing the envelope of reason. He reads like nonsense at first glance to the uninitiated like me. catttt 1.

— Anonymous

  • Bryson is using a lot of jargon, and he is pushing the envelope of reason.
  • He reads like nonsense at first glance to the uninitiated like me.
  • catttt 1.
  • Does "as an iconic entity" refer to "the body" or "the image"?
  • I don't even know what body or how it could be soldered to anything.
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1 Answers
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Bryson is using a lot of jargon, and he is pushing the envelope of reason. He reads like nonsense at first glance to the uninitiated like me.

catttt1. Does "as an iconic entity" refer to "the body" or "the image"?

I don't even know what body or how it could be soldered to anything. But supposing the words to be saying what he means, it is not clear gr

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