El sueño atávico de la muñeca: Más allá del discurso canónico sobre las imágenes

Abstract

This paper deals with the theory of images and its object of study is the doll. We intend to draw attention to some of the reasons for the impasse on which Image Theory is based and suggest a way to avoid it. As a case study, we have selected an essay by Maurizio Bettini entitled “Pupa. La bambola nella cultura greca e romana” [“Pupa. The doll in Greek and Roman culture”]. We will analyze it in some detail because it evidences some of the paradoxes and aporias involved by the canonical doctrine of images - which postulates that image = sign. Instead of trying to survey the overwhelming number of authors who have addressed the question “what is an image?”, we have chosen to concentrate here on two prominent figures: J. W. T. Mitchell y Ernst H. Gombrich. The first one, because brilliant and lucidly represents the conventionalist discourse of the canonical doctrine of images. The second, because is widely recognized as the main and most farsighted speaker of a non-reductionist multilateral approach that allows us to attend and explain non-semiotic uses of the images. Accepting that “the meaning of a word is its use in the language”, we will assume that image is everything that is said to be an image, although our study deals only with images which are physical artifacts.