Optiska illusioner ⁠— fetischism mellan modernitet och primitivism

Abstract

In the suburban areas of contemporary Sweden, cultural "otherness" is associated with a symbolic modernity. This connection has its roots in thought patterns prevalent in the previous century. These ways of thinking, freighted with colonialist overtones, guide our perception of the otherness of the suburbs, which stand out in increasingly bolder relief the more these areas become ethnically segregated.

In the course of the revolutionary changes occuring during the 19th century, the apprehension of how our bodies and, more significantly, how our senses function was also transformed, and from these changes new patterns of intricate power relationships and mirroring effects were created. The view of our senses, the boundaries of our bodies, are intimately related to our cultural boundaries. Here, the mechanism of seeing acts in concert with the cultural view of "difference". Cultural fetishism (ie., a mixture of fascination and repudiation), is one of the 19th-century phenomena which has acquired an increasing significance for our view of otherness.