The Text

The Persistence of Vision by Donna Haraway

Donna Haraway’s essay attempts to reposition the emerging discourse on vision and technology through feminist theory, which she defines as situated knowledge (677). Particularly she calls for the ideology of vision to be considered with embodiment, as a return to the body and an understanding of the technological advances in vision as a dialectic approach to the prevailing mythos of God-like vision enabled through technology. Haraway importantly frames the techno-feminist critique of techno-vision as being able to provide an objectivity through limited location and situated knowledge that is lacking in the all encompassing techno-vision theory, that this the technological all seeing vision (678). Haraway uses National Geographic’s 100th Anniversary Magazine issue of pictures from outer space and inner space to situate the vision through feminist theory. Additionally, Haraway reminds her reader “vision is always a question of the power to see…”(680). The issue of the power to see for Haraway implies issues of self, identity, objectivity and subjectivity. These issues are at the core of the feminist strategy, and thus position the methodology for analysis of techno-vision as the prescient model of critique.

The Technology

Saturn in 2001         National Geographic    from Nasa               100 th issue     

External Sites of Interest

Donna Haraway Faculty page at the European Graduate School

A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway