Introduction : Toward a Grammatology of Images

Abstract

The introduction derives the book's main intervention into the present image theory—i.e., the question of the ways in which something a-visible or immaterial gets transformed into an image—from Derrida's statement “The trace must be thought before the existing.” By replacing the prevalent idea of ‘trace’ (as something left-behind) by the question as to the preceding traces, the chapter evolves the book's focus on the threshold of trace and image, which is based in the awareness of the an-iconic world or the ‘archi-resemblance’ before the image. Hence, the question of imaging focuses on the moment and mode of ‘making an appearance’ of immaterial phenomena (such as emotions, defamation, dignity, or transcendental ideas) by means of non-resemblant pictures or effigies. The introduction further explains Benjamin's ‘threshold-knowledge’ and Warburg's cultural-historic approach as methodological references as well as the book's composition: the alteration of theoretical chapters and case studies.