图像时代视觉主体性的重构——文艺与文化研究的视觉转向之哲学根源

The Re-construction of Visual Subjectivity in the Pictorial Era——Philosophical Foundations of the Visual Turn in Literary and Cultural Studies

20世纪下半叶西方的文艺与文化研究领域经历了视觉转向,该转向标志着图像时代的来临。人们一般认为这一转向是科技革命带来的以图像的创造、生产、流通和消费为主要形式的电讯时代的必然趋势,但往往忽略了一个事实:即这一转向其实是人类文化对第一感官的悠久兴趣在电讯时代的一种强力复兴,更是西方主流哲学对始于柏拉图、成于笛卡尔的视觉主体性的反思、批判和重新构建。纵观西方思想史对视觉主体的思考,自柏拉图以降的哲学凝视及其客体几经变化。柏拉图—笛卡尔理性主义传统中,视觉主体对客体的"精神观照""本质观照"隐含着一种"理性之眼"和"暴力之光"的合谋。20世纪的哲学凝视逐渐转向视觉主体本身,讨论了"被人观看""相互观看""被意识形态观看""被权力观看""伦理观看"等主客体间的视觉模式,涉及视觉权力、视觉伦理、视觉心理等层面的问题,揭示了视觉主体构建的种种模式:如视觉黑洞、镜像陷阱、镜面大厅、全景监狱、他者之面等。这些视觉主体性理论为文艺研究和文化研究的视觉转向奠定了哲学基础。

The field of literary and cultural studies in the West has undergone a significant visual turn,which marks the entry into the pictorial era.It is usually understood that this turn is the inevitable result of the telecommunications age in which the creation,production,circulation and consumption of images are made possible by technological revolution.This view,however,overlooks the visual turn as a rebirth of an enduring human interest in the primary human organ of perception.Moreover,it is the outcome of mainstream Western philosophy’s reflections,critiques and re-conceptions of visual subjectivity that started with Plato and established by Descartes.Western philosophers’ gaze underwent multiple transformations throughout the Western intellectual history.In the 20;century, the philosophical gaze was gradually shifted to the spectator himself in a multitude of modes:being seen by other,being seen by power,mutual gaze,ethical gaze,etc.A variety of modes of visual construction of subjectivity in terms of society,psychology,and ethics are also observable,including visual black hole,visual trap,mirror hall,panopticon surveillance,as well as the other’s face,etc.These ideas of visual subjectivity have laid the philosophical foundation for the visual turn in literary and cultural studies.