The Visual Culture Reader

by Nicholas Mirzoeff (Editor)

The Visual Culture Reader brings together the key writings in the exciting new interdisciplinary field of visual culture. Key features of the Reader
* a wealth of visual forms including photography, painting,
sculpture, advertising, virtual reality and other electronic imaging * thematic sections, each with an introduction by the editor
* sections addressing What Is Visual Culture; Visual Culture and Everyday Life; Virtual Bodies, Virtual Spaces; Race, Empire and After; Postcolonial Visual Cultures; Gender and Sexuality
* two specially-written introductory articles, by Irit Rogoff and Ella Shohat
* a stunning line-up of authors, from Roland Barthes to Donna Haraway.
Taken as a whole, the essays provide a comprehensive response to the diversity of contemporary visual culture, and address the need of our modern and postmodern culture to render experience in visual form.
Contributors Roland Barthes, Judith Butler, Anthea Callen, James Clifford, Michel de Certeau, René Descartes, Richard Dyer, John Fiske, Michel Foucault, Coco Fusco, Paul Gilroy, Donna Haraway, bell hooks, Marshall McLuhan, Lynda Nead, Griselda Pollock, Mary-Louise Pratt, Irit Rogoff, Andrew Ross, Ella Shohat and Paul Virilio.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Theory, Cultural Studies, Sociology, Academia, Research

560 pages, Hardcover

First published December 22, 1998

Reviews

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was a fabulous way to be exposed to some critical original source material for those studying visual culture. It isn't coming at the visual from an art perspective, but a theoretical perspective, and it's not just fine art. Very informative and a must read.

[David Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of some great essential essays... but in many ways, despite the editor's intent, such a book really extinguishes Visual Culture's radical potential by virtue of making it a canon of sorts.

[emi k · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best "reader" on visual culture i've ever read, and i've read many. Althusser, Barthes, Baudrillard, Butler, Dubois, Fanon, GUY DEBORD (!!!), Descarte, Foucault, Haraway, Shohat(!!!), Halberstam, and the list goes on and on. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[maile · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book rules, if you are into conceptual art at all or you're interested in how contemporary theories of art are influencing cultural studies, read this bitch!

[Vanessa]

i really want to get through this book. technically i've been 'currently reading' this for about 5 years. it's the first essay that makes my brain spin. but it's by the editor and i feel like i owe it to him to finish it! once i get through that one, i think the other essays will be much more manageable.

[Katie Chico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific collection of essays I had to read for my Master's course work. I still have it to this day and often find myself referencing many of the essays. This really is a must read for anyone serious about deconstruction of visual culture or for anyone who wants to be able to appreciate it more.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

some amazing pieces on the gaze, visual colonialism, digital culture, etc.. While this edition may be out of date, the ideas are not.. A keeper for certain.

[Merve]

A great collection of essays. You cannot just read it and be done with it. It is more of an ongoing reading experience that requires one to read some of the essays again and again.