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Overview
The Dragonfly's Eyes:
Multiple Gaze in The Logic of Power and the Concealment of Subjectivity
Lundy CHAN (Lunyu CHEN)
Date: 18th May, 2023
Word Count:
Thesis: 28,201
References: 2,293
Appendix: 7,779
Contents
Abstract
I
Acknowledgement
III
Introduction
1
Start from the Word ‘Modernity’
1
Newness and Modernity
1
Deficiencies in the Prospective of Time
4
In Modernity: Diverse Connotations of Modernity
5
Disenchantment and Subjectivity
7
Insights of Xu Bing
12
Delve into Dragonfly’s Eyes
12
Connect Works of the Sense of Modernity and Subjectivity
13
Chapter 1 — The Dragonfly’s ‘Eyes’: How Subjectivity through Gaze
Deprives Others of Meaning
21
1 Concrete Surveillance, Abstract Person
21
2 Cosmetic Surgery: The Dead End of Self-Determination
32
3 The Beached Self-Assurance
41
Chapter 2 — How Is the Essence of an Individual Possible?
47
4 Instinct: The Ebbing of the Individual
47
5 Response to Implicit Objections
54
6 Culture: Science and Framing
59
Chapter 3 — The Countenance of Subjectivity: Consideration on
Patriarchy
65
7 Argumentation on the Relationship between Subjectivity and
Patriarchy
65
8 Dragonfly’s Eyes: The Patriarchal Form of Subjectivity
74
9 After Patriarchy: What’s Subjectivity’s Road Ahead
80
Conclusion
91
Bibliography
104
List of Figures
105
Appendix A: The Life of Xu Bing – a timeline
109
Appendix B: The Index of Xu Bing’s Artworks
129
Abstract
In the environment of modernity, human rationality has been brought into full play, resulting in the ‘disenchantment to the world’. As humans cast off the misconceptions about the unknowable external world, the external constraints they once imposed upon themselves gradually dissolve. Consequently, ‘humans’ are now perceivable as distinct, independent entities, marking the entrance of human society into an era that accentuates its own subjectivity. However, as subjectivity unfolds, the preoccupation with the self and self-esteem metamorphoses into an invasive form of exclusivity. While individuals persistently search for their place within subjectivity, they simultaneously demand that others beyond themselves conform to their own standards, and chastise all those who fall outside the range of ‘us’.
In other words, subjectivity entails the ongoing deprivation of meaning from others based on one’s personal experiences and perspectives as a subject. The practice of subjectivity often manifests through the act of gazing: at its inception, various individuals continuously scrutinise each other, resulting in either rejection or subjugation of individuals or ideas that differ from one’s own. This gaze remains uninterrupted to ensure that the status quo remains satisfactorily under the control of the subject itself, despite the inherent paradox – when an individual endeavours to assert their subjectivity over others, they inevitably become an object to the others, subjected to the imposition of the other’s subjectivity. It is precisely this dynamic that intensifies the competitive exclusivity among individuals as they strive for the ultimate subject, ensnaring subjectivity within the paradigm of ‘victory or defeat’ among individuals.
In Dragonfly’s Eyes, the metaphor of individuality being exploited also presents itself throughout. Comprising an array of surveillance segments, the film renders all ‘people’ as fragments, suitable only for interpretation. Furthermore, the protagonist, Qing Ting, wholly embraces external aesthetic judgments, opting to sever all ties with her past identity through cosmetic surgery, transforming into a mere vessel molded by external judgments. This sets the stage for her ‘demise’ – Xiao Xiao (Qing Ting post-cosmetic surgery) is believed to have chosen river suicide in the face of incessant online abuse from malicious individuals. This recurring cycle of malicious slander serves as yet another exercise of ‘subjectivity’ by numerous individuals and once again strips Qing Ting of her ‘essence’ which no longer originates from within, ultimately rendering her as a void.
Subjectivity stems from the human instinct to seek and submit to power, and even after the development of a highly civilised society, culture has not been able to free people from their desire for power, but rather to make the implementation of subjectivity more natural, which is merely a veneer of power. Moreover, subjectivity is also patriarchal, whether in the different forms of the male gaze in the film or in the complete erasure of human identity during the surveillance process, which is a way for the core of power to reinforce and perpetuate its own position, and thus to exclude and degrade the others. It is inertial to limit the discussion of patriarchy to specific practices because of the ‘gender’ factor, but in fact patriarchy and subjectivity are two sides of the same logic of power.
At the moment of disenchantment, the relentless questioning of self-assurance persists, yet the answer to the question of ‘self’ becomes increasingly elusive. Individuals who employ subjectivity to seek self-identity paradoxically lose themselves amidst the ceaseless erosion of subjectivity.
Key words: Xu Bing, Dragonfly’s Eyes, subjectivity criticism,
patriarchy, logic of power