Images and Their Ability to Negate

Conceiving of the image’s capacity to negate may be considered to
represent a major challenge for any theory of the visual domain; nevertheless, there
is no tradition of research on the capacity of the image to negate what it represents.
This papers aims at proposing an enunciative point of view of this issue, stating that
the image, far from limiting itself to affirmatively assuming what it displays, can
modulate the degrees by which it assumes what it represents.
Enunciative perspective will enable me to define the image as a non-irenic locus
where the figures of enunciator and observer may compete with respect to visibility
and knowledge through a conflict of perspectives. This will make me able to show
that the image consists not only in presenting something to the eyes but that it can
also argument, for example, by denying what it showcases. This approach will be
put to the test of semiotic analysis of painting and photography.