Konstförstörelsens olika uttryck: En begreppsanalytisk studie av ikonoklastisk konstdiskurs

Abstract

This essay examines the stigmatization of contemporary iconoclastic discourse and the feasibility of creating a new classification of iconoclastic deeds. Based on Reinhart Koselleck’s concept analysis and a discourse analytical perspective, the essay discusses the use and perception of iconoclastic terminology and deeds of art destruction to examine why some art historians prefer to ignore and repress iconoclasm as a non-topic. With their immense studies of visual culture, David Freedberg and W. J. T. Mitchell have shown that as long as images, totems and emblems are being produced, iconoclasm will be a constantly ongoing phenomenon due to our need of representative idols. Building on the dramatic history of iconoclastic deeds as depicted in previous research, the essay argues that the iconoclastic discourse should abandon its view on iconoclasm as an historical event, to a never exhaustive topic.