ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the meme of voyeurism part of larger aesthetic and autopoetic phenomena that both precede and postdate Carvers era. It provides examples of Carvers excessive use of the faculty of observation in both poems and stories. The chapter establishes a link to recent research in mathematics and sociology where the case has been made for the central role of observation across autopoetic systems. It returns to a contemporary perspective by considering how Carvers use of observation in conjunction with mirrors and windows across his production anticipates significant finds in neuroscience. The chapter presents an overview of voyeurism that pre-date the twentieth century and have passed down through major periods of Biblical, Classical, and Medieval literature, culminating in the Renaissance sonnet tradition. There is a surprisingly strong link in Carvers poems to this historical line of development, and these literary traditions are the backdrop for the section that follows on two sonnets like Carver poems, Woman Bathing and The Sunbather.
