ABSTRACT
IT IS WITH GREAT HAPPINESS AND A SENSE of opportunity and privilege that I accepted Norman Bryson’s proposal—at the invitation of Saul Ostrow—to compile a volume based on a selection of my earlier work pertaining to visual culture and art. Preparing this book has helped me become aware of how I, as a literary scholar with a solid structuralist training, came to be perceived as close enough to being an art historian to warrant a volume in this series. The preparation allowed me to reflect on what I think most important to convey to readers interested in vision and visual culture and how to make the best possible use of this opportunity. In short, it became an occasion to look back, in a process whose outcome I can only refer to as an “intellectual autobiography.”
