engleski

Wider Image: Imagology and the Post- poststructuralist Challenge

Imagology can be defined as a critical and analytical paradigm which initially emerged within the literary studies during the 1960’s. Aiming to explore the phenomena of cultural difference, traditional imagology deals with literary images, i. e. discursive constructions and representations of various forms of collective identities, especially with the ethnic and national ones. In order to meet epistemological challenge which has been recently imposed by post-poststructural theories, I would propose a broader definition of a key imagological concept – the image. In my view, image might be defined as an interferential configuration of the mental images, textual and non-textual representations and practice patterns which are constituted within a certain socio- historical context. Thus, by locating phenomenon of creating of the imageries at the boundary of biology and culture, images might be conceptualized both as a kind of anthropological universal dependent of the neurophysiology of the brain and as a historically specific and socially and culturally generated and generative phenomenon. In that manner, imagology might be able to combine both culturalist and phenomenological perspectives, which would bring imagology more into accord with epistemological imperatives of the post-poststructuralism.

imagology, post-poststructuralism

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