Just Looking

Abstract

This chapter concerns "the notion of the poem itself as a place of work that implicitly critiques processes of mimesis or representation, the role of language as material in visual and site-specific work" (quoted from the invitation to contribute). It analyses a series of three juxtapositions of a modernist avant-garde "text" with an historical analogue "text" that seems to work in a similar way. The juxtapositions seek to throw light on the distinction between "reading" and "looking" - a classically-unequal dyadic pairing which privileges the former term. The "thesis", provocatively expressed, is that there is no such thing as reading, no mental activity which is (almost entirely) distinct from all others - rather, there is "just looking". The distinction between the two is often blurred in avant-garde poetic practice, and such blurring has deep historical roots, reinforcing the impression that it is fundamental. The piece begins with a brief summary of what is now understood to happen "behind the eyes" when we read.