Taking the fall of the Berlin Wall as a key marker in recent history – a period in which increasingly we find ourselves watching ‘instant history’ unfold live on air – the book presents a new critical concept of image critique: a double procedure of both a critique of images and the use of images as a means to engage with our contemporary mediated culture for new critical purposes.
A rich array of primary sources are woven together to provide a thorough critique of the recent and lively theoretical debates about visual culture. Topics range from Francis Fukuyama’s End of History thesis to metapictures, contemporary East German film and the notion of the public sphere/screen. In staking out a new critical visual theory, the book does not seek to present any straightforward analysis of visual representations of the fall of the Wall, but instead inhabits its historical and ongoing resonance as a means to situate a complex interactive account of history, politics, human action, freedom, the media and visual culture.
Chapter titles
Chapter 1: 'On the Sight of the Berlin Wall' - Page 31
Sunil Manghani
Chapter 2: 'The Problem of Visual Culture' - Page 67
Sunil Manghani
Chapter 3: 'The End of History?' - Page 95
Sunil Manghani
Chapter 4: 'Living without an Alternative' - Page 141
Sunil Manghani
Chapter 5: 'Public Screening: Critical Pictures of the Wall' - Page 165
Sunil Manghani
Reviews
'An eloquent treatment of how images shape and are shaped by their environment - by history, politics, individual and collective practice, and the media. Manghani takes us on an engaging ride through the diverse visual journeys extending from the fall of the Berlin Wall. The book enriches and alters how we can - and should - understand the Wall and its memory.' – Barbie Zelizer, University of Pennsylvania
'Required reading for all those in visual culture' – Nicholas Mirzoeff, New York University
'Image Critique & the Fall of the Berlin Wall is a magnificent encounter between visual images of the fall of the wall and the most sensitively acute intellectual theories about images […]. Manghani crafts a novel form of image critique out of richly metaphorical writing, theoretical depths and carefully orchestrated images. The brilliant flash of lightning that inspires this book makes music of the long roll of thunder heard in these inspiring pages.' – Jon Simons, Indiana University
'Image Critique and the Fall of the Berlin Wall is the best sort of scholarly book - an intellectually grounded and theoretically adventurous critical performance. Through his concept of image critique, Manghani makes a virtue out of the many attributes of images that bedevil visual cultural studies, rightly insisting that rather than domesticating images for the tyranny of the word, scholars must do visual studies from the ground of images, in the process reconceptualizing theory and criticism. If heeded, Manghani's book will change the trajectory of visual cultural studies by making critique a performance with force in the world.' – Kevin DeLuca, University of Georgia
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