Reflexivity and Self-Referentiality in Image

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of ‘image-within-image’ in Panel VII, Hieroglyphic Stairway 2, Structure 33 of the ancient Maya city of Yaxchilan, considering the position it occupies in the set of panels and its integration in the architectural setting. It will also examine the narrative registered in the embedded text and the subject of both text and image. It will argue that the recursive device of ‘image-within-image’ in the Panel extends to the totality of the staircase with the other twelve that compose it, and to the ritual activity celebrated on it. The analysis will provide an opportunity to explore reflexivity and self-referentiality and their implications for insights on ritual and personhood among Late Classic Maya. To do this, I will build on anthropology of art approach and its notion that visual devices may elicit ontological conceptions.

Self-images, emotions, and music videos: studying reflexivity and the emergence of subcultural selves for 'emo kids' in Singapore

“…Studies suggest that adolescents' self-reflection is a significant mode of ritualistic selfregulation that entails the symbolic and cognitive organization of self-knowledge-specifically, emotions and embodied emotional experiences (Demmrich and Wolfadt 2018). Torres (2020) argues that visual "reflexive devices" communicated through cultural text and media "point to self-referentiality of ritual action" and construct understandings of (sub)cultural selfhood" (p. 117). In this way, my participants' selfimages concurs with the observation that self-images and (meta)reflexive self-meanings are constructed through symbolic interaction which facilitates "accounts of reflexivity" (Mauther and Docet 2003).…”