Cartesian Perspectivalism: The View from "Nowhere"
René Descartes
1596 – 1650 A.D.
French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist
"Who" is the Cartesian Perspectivalist?
One of the main concepts concerning the racialized gaze that Hum discusses in her critique of Mulan (1998) is the notion of Cartesian perspectivalism, which she identifies as the scopic regime of modern cinema viewership. Derived from René Descartes' Cartesian self, Cartesian perspectivalism believes the "seeing subject is a detached observer [of film] and the seeing stance is a 'view from nowhere'" (109). The very idea of Cartesian perspectivalism, of course, unravels when contending with a non-Western fable like The Ballad of Mulan (木蘭辭) since "[t]he Cartesian spectator takes on the unmarked, normative subject position of Western civilization: a white, Eurocentric, middle-class heterosexual male" (111). The problem(s), Hum further notes, is that Cartesian perspectivalism assumes the "authenticity" and "universality" of a singular truth (i.e. there can be a singular representation of all Chinese cultures). One of the main criticisms about Mulan (2020) is that despite having an Asian cast, the production team was primarily white (and Western). Consequently, Disney here repeats the same mistake (so to speak) as they did with the animated classic: the production team impose a Western script and vision for the movie based on their prior film experience. And, while Mulan (2020) does have to contend with a second culture (Disney), as argued by the film director Niki Caro, this visionary stance of Cartesian perspectivalism remains baffling in the face of Disney's conscious efforts to appeal to non-Western audiences who do not share the implicit biases Cartesian perspectivalism dictates.
The Elements of Cartesian Perspectivalism: Flat Mirror, Unblinking Eye, and Denarrativization
The "flat mirror" is aptly described by its name—it is best understood as the flattening of a three-dimensional scene into a two dimensional one. Furthermore, this metaphor operates under the conceptual assumption of mimesis, which suggests that literature and art mimics the real world. Martin Jay elaborates that the realism in film is often perceived as "mirror-like," and consequently often results in the visuals of a film being interpreted as "naked reality" (Hum 110). The flat mirror becomes problematic among Western audiences viewing Mulan as they interpret the clothing Mulan wears or activities she participates in to be part of a singular, universal Chinese culture.
FLAT
MIRROR
FLAT
MIRROR
The unblinking eye refers to the idea that Cartesian self should critically view a piece of art, literature, or film from a perspective detached from reality and personal biases. Roland Barthes suggests the unblinking eye is often likened to that of a camera lens; the object [the film] itself cannot hold personal dispositions as a technology, and this must subsequently mean the images it produces are "fixed, decontextualized, and de-eroticized" (110). The problem, of course, is that this fails to account for who is using said "technology" and, whether intentional or not, the biases and choices they make in choosing which images [of Mulan's China] they wish to share with a broader public.
UNBLINKING
EYE
UNBLINKING
EYE
Denarrativization is the last piece in unpacking the three-fold process of Cartesian perspectivalism. If the mirror flattens identity and the eye detaches the self, then denarrativization robs racial discourses of the right to produce rhetoric. Martin Jay explains that images lose their right to tell a story in denarrativization as the underlying Cartesian assumption supports a conflation of said images with reality. Combined, these elements place distance between the discarnate eye and a given image/scene. The distance, Hum argues, creates a sense of images as representation as opposed to resemblance that ultimately cements snapshots of a culture as a holistic reality (110).