Past Conditional Subjectivities: Enacting Relationships with the Non-Human in the Work of Ana Mendieta

IF 0.2 0 LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM
Matthew Harrison Tedford
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Inspired by what literary scholar Lisa Lowe calls “the past conditional temporality”—or the “what could have been”—this paper examines how the work of 20th-century Cuban American performance artist Ana Mendieta challenges modernist ontologies that separate the human from the non-human, simultaneously calling on older ways of being and demonstrating that they never disappeared. Many argue that the ecological crises of the Anthropocene are in large part due to the proliferation of modernist worldviews that set humans apart from the non-human world. The rise of European rationalist philosophies in the early modern period played a central role in the proliferation of instrumentalist relationships between humans and the non-human world. This paper explores how Mendieta’s Silueta and Rupestrian Sculptures series (from the 1970s and 1980s) resist the logic of European capitalism and colonialism, revealing that the relationships that rationalism sought to subdue have always existed, will continue to exist, and can proliferate. Symbolic communication is a key means of mediating and actualizing relationships between subjects, and so, if a non-instrumental relationship is possible between the human and non-human, visual art ought to be a possible means of enactment. Through Mendieta’s work, this paper considers the mechanisms by which this is possible. By considering meaning-making as a basis for life, the co-constitution of human/non-human subjectivities, and the inherent permeability of the category of the individual, this paper highlights counter-modernist visual art practices that are of special urgency in the age of the Anthropocene.
过去条件主体性:安娜·门迭塔作品中与非人类的关系
受文学学者丽莎·洛所称的“过去的有条件的时间性”或“本来可以是什么”的启发,本文研究了20世纪古巴裔美国行为艺术家安娜·门迭塔的作品是如何挑战将人类与非人类分开的现代主义本体论的,同时呼吁旧的存在方式并证明它们从未消失。许多人认为,人类世的生态危机在很大程度上是由于现代主义世界观的扩散,这种世界观将人类与非人类世界区分开来。近代早期欧洲理性主义哲学的兴起在人类与非人类世界之间工具主义关系的扩散中发挥了核心作用。本文探讨了Mendieta的Silueta和Rupestrian雕塑系列(从20世纪70年代到80年代)如何抵制欧洲资本主义和殖民主义的逻辑,揭示了理性主义试图征服的关系一直存在,将继续存在,并可以扩散。符号交流是调解和实现主体之间关系的关键手段,因此,如果人类和非人类之间的非工具关系是可能的,那么视觉艺术应该是一种可能的制定手段。通过Mendieta的工作,本文考虑了使这成为可能的机制。通过思考作为生命基础的意义创造、人类/非人类主体性的共构以及个体范畴的内在渗透性,本文强调了在人类世时代特别紧迫的反现代主义视觉艺术实践。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
0
审稿时长
23 weeks
期刊介绍: Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture, based at the University of Łódź, is an international and interdisciplinary journal, which seeks to engage in contemporary debates in the humanities by inviting contributions from literary and cultural studies intersecting with literary theory, gender studies, history, philosophy, and religion. The journal focuses on textual realities, but contributions related to art, music, film and media studies addressing the text are also invited. Submissions in English should relate to the key issues delineated in calls for articles which will be placed on the website in advance. The journal also features reviews of recently published books, and interviews with writers and scholars eminent in the areas addressed in Text Matters. Responses to the articles are more than welcome so as to make the journal a forum of lively academic debate. Though Text Matters derives its identity from a particular region, central Poland in its geographic position between western and eastern Europe, its intercontinental advisory board of associate editors and internationally renowned scholars makes it possible to connect diverse interpretative perspectives stemming from culturally specific locations. Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture is prepared by academics from the Institute of English Studies with considerable assistance from the Institute of Polish Studies and German Philology at the University of Łódź. The journal is printed by Łódź University Press with financial support from the Head of the Institute of English Studies. It is distributed electronically by Sciendo. Its digital version published by Sciendo is the version of record. Contributions to Text Matters are peer reviewed (double-blind review).
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