Painting on the Page devises critical strategies that combine psychoanalysis, feminism, semiotics, and philosophy to examine late 19th- and 20th-Century Spanish and Spanish-American literature in relation to painting and to larger questions of art and literary history. The authors widen the theoretical lines to Hispanism, where approaches of this kind are rare. The book raises crucial concerns that relocate the art works and texts in question beyond the historical or aesthetic framework in which they have been traditionally placed.
Reflections on the Mirrored Room
After looking at the fictional Mirror of Erised in my last post, I felt inspired to research into our fascinations with our own reflections, and why exactly we desire it so much. For who, in their minds decided to bring our reflections into the comfort of our homes? Our beds?
A brief history of Mirrors: http://www.livescience.com/34466-who-invented-mirror.html
Well, it’s quite hard to say, since the very earliest use of a mirror was alluded to by the Roman author Pliny the Elder in the first century of A.D. During the reign of Rome, we know from history that they were fascinated with the human figure, and in other words, themselves and their appearances. Yet, there was no introduction of mirrors at the time.
However, the true inventor of the mirror might be argued as nature herself, in the stilled surfaces of a pond, where the glistening water reflected that of the beholder. Although a research has shown that animals themselves can’t distinguish that of their own reflections, and instead think of the reflection as that of another, mimicking their own movements.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2014/10/24/what_do_animals_see_in_the_mirror_self_recognition_and_social_behavior_video.html
Now this could be argued that they desire companionship, as a form of their needs to survive and their well being. Now these are from research done on the most basic intelligence of animals, and not higher intelligence like those of apes and dolphins, who can actually distinguish those reflections as their own. But because it is that of basic intelligence, it could teach us more about our most complicated inner desire. In other words, could our reflections and our fascinations with it be something that is driven by our need for companionship? Could that desire be a manifestation for other’s acceptance? Could it be that ultimately our final desire is to be with another person, complete harmony between two bodies and soul?
Is the invention of reflections itself by mother nature a demonstration of our “desires...conceived in terms of a lack”?
“Desire as a constructive force”, the mirrors found placed beside animals often allow them to be more constructive, they behave better and their health increases, so in this case, mirrors themselves improve upon their health and well-being.
Whether Mirrors are really this constructive thing or not, is hard to say, but we definitely desire to look into our reflections, both for seeing ourselves or maybe because we long to see someone like us.
