“On the Vaporization and Centralization of the Self”: The Notion of the Subject in Modern Western Discourse
Donato Loia
Publication: Volume 3 Issue 1
Abstract
The paper focuses on initiating a conversation on the “question of the subject,” beyond the strict contraposition of autonomy and non autonomy. The discussion begins by providing a brief introduction to the notion of “autonomy of the subject.” It describes certain crucial arguments that have validated the decentering of the subject-centered paradigm. Within different sections, the limits of both autonomous and non-autonomous paradigm have been identified, and an excursus on art historical and visual case studies has been provided to substantiate each paradigm. The study, thus, develops an argument that it is impossible to cleanly separate the category of the subject from a dimension simultaneously autonomous and non-autonomous.
Keywords: Autonomy, Non-Autonomy, Subject; Continental Philosophy, Visual Studies.
Donato Loia (donatoloia@utexas.edu) is a Ph.D. candidate in Modern and Contemporary Art at the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Texas, Austin, US and the 2019–2020 Vivian L. Smith Foundation Fellow at the Menil Collection. His dissertation tentatively titled “Beyond the Light: Visual Studies on the Senses of the Sacred in the Absence of God” brings together themes of art, religiosity, secularity, and subjectivity