Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Visual Culture
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (17)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bal, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Visual essentialism and the object of visual culture

Mieke Bal

University of Amsterdam and Cornell University, mieke.bal{at}hum.uva.nl

The double question whether visual culture studies is a discipline or an interdisciplinary movement, and which methods are most suited to practice in this field, can only be addressed by way of the object. This article probes the difficulty of defining or delimiting the object of study without the reassuring and widespread visual essentialism that, in the end, can only be tautological.

Key Words: art • interdisciplinarity • literature • methodology • museums • popular culture • visual culture

Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 2, No. 1, 5-32 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/147041290300200101
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Journal of Visual CultureHome page
C. Coopmans
Stephen Pattison, Seeing Things: Deepening Relations with Visual Artefacts. London: SCM Press, 2007. ISBN 9780334041498
Journal of Visual Culture, December 1, 2008; 7(3): 371 - 373.
[PDF]

Home page
 Theory Culture SocietyHome page
M. Ito
Seeing Animals, Speaking of Nature: Visual Culture and the Question of the Animal
Theory Culture Society, July 1, 2008; 25(4): 119 - 137.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Poetics TodayHome page
S. Horstkotte and N. Pedri
Introduction: Photographic Interventions
Poetics Today, March 1, 2008; 29(1): 1 - 29.
[PDF]

Home page
 Security DialogueHome page
L. Amoore
Vigilant Visualities: The Watchful Politics of the War on Terror
Security Dialogue, June 1, 2007; 38(2): 215 - 232.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Visual CultureHome page
M. Jay
Introduction to Show and Tell
Journal of Visual Culture, August 1, 2005; 4(2): 139 - 143.
[PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Visual CultureHome page
M. Bal
The Commitment to Look
Journal of Visual Culture, August 1, 2005; 4(2): 145 - 162.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Visual CultureHome page
M. Smith
Visual Studies, or the Ossification of Thought
Journal of Visual Culture, August 1, 2005; 4(2): 237 - 256.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Visual CultureHome page
A. Hastie
New York Shelf Life: Dirk Westphal's Acts of Preservation
Journal of Visual Culture, April 1, 2005; 4(1): 53 - 74.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Visual CultureHome page
Responses to Mieke Bal's `Visual Essentialism and the Object of Visual Culture' (2003): Mieke Bal's Reply to the Responses
Journal of Visual Culture, August 1, 2003; 2(2): 260 - 268.
[PDF]