Page 16 - Critical and Cultural Theory

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
case, it is undeniable that mind and body have always operated as
parts of a composite MACHINE. This cannot be regarded as the
exclusive possession of an individual. Indeed, individuals never see
the world through purely personal lenses. They are, in fact,
constantly implicated in intersubjective networks of perception.
Our cultural existence is a product of how we look at the world
but it is also, ineluctably, a product of how the world looks at us:
of how it constructs us through its unremitting GAZE.
The non-linear route outlined above is by no means the only
possible way of reading this book across its three Parts, rather
than sequentially, chapter by chapter. In fact, it is intended to
supply just one example (as limited as an example of this kind is
bound to be) of the potentially limitless number of journeys which
a reader may take through the kaleidoscopic worlds of critical and
cultural theory. Ultimately, the book wishes to emphasize that
several disciplines influenced by critical and cultural theory have
proposed stimulating variations on a wide range of themes and,
more importantly, to suggest that any moderately curious reader
may move on to formulate her or his own variations.

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