Ssorin-Chaikov, Nikolai, “Predel
prozrachnosti: chernyi iashchik i antropologiia vraga v rannei sovetologii i
sovetskosti,” IArskaia-Smirnova, Elena ; Romanov, P. V., Vizualnaia antropologiia : rezhimy vidimosti pri sotsializme.
Moskva : Variant, TsSPGI, 2009. P. 19-56.
The article introduces the metaphor
of a ‘black box’ in order to complement the panoptic gaze of Foucault as a
characteristic feature of modernity. Placing the ‘other’ – domestic enemy in
Soviet discourse or Socialist society/subject in Sovietology – in this ‘black
box’ allowed for creation of a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’. Denial of
‘transparency’ and introduction of ‘opacity’ allowed those in the position of
observers (scholars/authorities) to explain the seeming resemblance of loyal
citizens and enemies (in the Soviet case, in particular) and introduce not only
the vertical panoptic gaze (including that in form of self-disciplining), but created
a also diffused horizontal gaze of citizens observing each other: in a society
where a seemingly loyal person could turn out to be an enemy, citizens had to
pay attention to ‘codes’ that were used by other citizens in order to make
claims over the true nature of this or that person.
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