Immagini che agiscono politicamente. Note su W.J.T. Mitchell

W.J.T. Mitchell’s work on visual culture entertains an ambivalent relationship with the question of the ontology of images. At times it sidesteps the issue in order to avoid the pitfalls of essentialism; at others it engages with it, considering it a crucial element of a picture theory. This article evaluates the philosophical import of Mitchell’s approach and suggests that asking “What are images?” inevitably raises the problem of their political agency. An ontological analysis of the image, therefore, can only take shape as a political ontology.