Providing the reader with a systematic study of visual subjectivity in comparative thought and literature, this book analyses the role that vision and visuality, especially interpersonal visuality, plays in the constitution of subject and subjectivity in Chinese and American traditions.

Examining the formation of visual subjectivity in the philosophical works by major Chinese and Western thinkers, this book provides a comparative study of four masterworks of Chinese and American fiction, focusing on The Plum in the Golden Vase, The Story of the Stone, Moby Dick, and The Scarlet Letter. It demonstrates that there are both psychologically universal and culturally specific factors and features in the visual constitution and representation of self, identity, subject, and subjectivity.

Offering fresh insights for cross-cultural studies of intellectual thought, literature, ideology, and culture through the visual lens, this book will appeal to students and scholars engaged in comparative studies of Chinese and American thought, literature, and narrative theory.