Term: Figure

I begin by defining, in an inescapably simplistic way, what I mean by the three terms in the title: sublime, figure, and history….“Figure”…points to the subject, the concept of preference for denoting the makeup of the individual psyche, its conscious and unconscious workings, and all its social, cultural ramifications. But “figure” is more sensuous, imagistic, and specular, and it bears the traces of historical and cultural formations at their most visible and palpable. The figure can be a plastic figure, a figure of speech, a figure for mirror identification, or a historical figure enveloped in a mythical aura. I use the word to denote sensory or figural representations in contrast to the more abstract term “subject,” which in current theoretical formulations has revealed its manifold, historical contingent figurations.
– Ban Wang, The Sublime Figure of History, 1–2