Special Section Editorial - Visual rhetoric and rhetorics of the visual (original) (raw)
Related papers
AM Journal of Art and Media Studies, 2017
Defining Visual Rhetorics is a volume of texts on visual rhetoric composed by Charles A. Hill and Marguerite Helmers. With the eclectic selection of papers, the authors attempt to define this new discipline, aware of the fact that it is a new area whose boundaries are not clearly drawn: because of a struggle for dominance between verbal and pictorial discourse, visual rhetoric is still fighting for its recognition in rhetorical circles. At the same time, in the light of Mitchell's pictorial turn, numerous established disciplines (rhetorics, communicology, art theory, anthropology, psychology, etc) show an increased interest in the study of the visual material produced by contemporary society. Insisting on parallel lines of strictly separate methodologies (rhetoric, semiotics, cultural studies) in the study of similar visual phenomena is basically irrational, urging editors to insist on an interdisciplinary approach to visual rhetoric. Hill and Helmers have therefore invited twelve contributors to offer their perspective on the application of rhetorical analysis to diverse visual communication models-from documentary photography to Victorian interiors. Authors who were invited to contribute their works belong to various disciplines, i.e. "situate themselves at the crossroads of more than one discipline". Defining Visual Rhetorics is intended for a contemporary expert audience interested in visual phenomena whether it is about visual rhetoric, mass communication, cultural studies or visual culture studies. In fourteen chapters, the invited authors write about their definition of visual rhetoric, and through the analysis of very different visual materials imply their view of contemporary rhetorical methodology. However, regardless of the central topic of interest, all the texts deal with the basic problem of contemporary rhetoric-the relation of the verbal and visual in the formation of meaning. Within rhetorical circles there is still a conflict between the importance attached to verbal over visual (and vice versa). Authors who were invited to collaborate on the proceedings believe that these are two facets of the creation of meaning that must be studied at the same time, emphasizing the dialogic, mutually conditioned relation between image and text.
Visuality Design in and for Education, 2021
Since the ancient rhetoricians, humans have awarded imagery, the visual, and the vivid an extraordinary effect on emotions and memory. Such assumptions have led to iconophobia, iconoclasm, and myths about the special power of images. The issue of the power of pictures, however, is more complicated. As all other kinds of rhetorical utterances, the visual can be both powerful and powerless depending on the circumstances. For many pictures, the rhetorical power lies not mainly in their political deliberation, but instead in their nature as demonstrative or epideictic rhetoric: a rhetoric that does not primarily advocate immediate change, but tries to increase adherence to existing view-points, attitudes and values. Even though visual rhetoric may perform a powerful address to those who are already convinced, it does not necessarily hold much power over adversaries and sceptics. This article argues that when teaching visuality and the power of imagery, educators ought to help young pupils – and the citizenry in general – not only to decode visual communication, but also to interpret and evaluate it. The first requires knowledge about rules of visual literacy, the second requires not only critical thinking, but also situational and cultural knowledge, as well as sound judgment.
Visual rhetorical argumentation
Semiotica, 2018
In semiotics and the study of pictorial communication, the conceptualization of visual rhetoric and argumentation has been dominated by two connected approaches: firstly, by providing an understanding of visual rhetoric through tropes and figures; and secondly, by interpreting pictures as texts that are read and decoded in the same way as words. Because these approaches provide an opportunity to understand pictures as a form of language, they contribute in explaining how pictures can be used to argue. At the same time, however, these approaches seem to under-communicate two central aspects of pictorial argumentation: its embedment in specific situations and the distinguishing phenomenological aesthetics of pictures. This paper argues that the study of visual argumentation must understand pictures both as language and as a material aesthetic event. The possibility and actuality of visual argumentation is partly explained by understanding argumentation as a cognitive and situational p...
An art of playing with words, as ancient as fire, and now that it has been mentioned, as powerful and stinging as fire also, is our literary friend "rhetoric". This unique form of manifestation of thoughts and opinions was introduced to the world by the Greeks and till now is equally impactful as it was in the Shakespearean senate house. It is a craft to weaving words in a fashion that a small domestic fact will also be heard by the audience as an impressive profound truth. But why is it so that rhetoric enables a communicator to transfix his/her audience? When a thing is told in an indirect manner the rational wheels of our brains start churning as to "what did he mean by this?", "Is there something more to what is apparent?" This curiosity and consequent imagination of human brain falls prey to the hidden persuasion being employed.
Rhetoric of the visual : metaphor in a still image
Jyväskylä studies in humanities, 2011
Lehtonen, Kimmo E. RHETORIC OF THE VISUAL – Metaphor in a Still Image Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2011, 174 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4331; 166) ISBN 978-951-39-4546-6 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-4547-3 (PDF) Diss. This study includes an introduction and six articles. The articles return to the problem of visual meaning as a content-intensive quality of an image. The elementary questions are in which ways does an image represent itself when it is published, and how much does the genre in a single visual presentation metaphorise itself before presenting its message, narrative or argument through the visual means? The goal of this study is to make new openings for the analysis of the content in visual presentations in the field of humanities. It considers media studies and cultural studies in terms of semiotics and genre studies. The texts look at a variety of theoretical disciplines, especially semiotics, rhetoric and to some extent, hermeneutics and various th...
Classifying visual rhetoric: Conceptual and structural heuristics
… ! New Directions in Advertising …, 2008
This chapter discusses a number of problems and heuristics with regard to identifying and analyzing classes of visual rhetoric in commercial ads. The tenor of the chapter is that clearcut structural and conceptual classes of visual rhetoric do not sufficiently take into account interpretation subtleties and ambiguities present in visual rhetoric. We propose a series of heuristic steps needed to define the rhetorical nature of ads and to exploit the structural and conceptual load of visual rhetoric in ads. These heuristics, we contend, will not always result in an unequivocal interpretation of visual rhetoric, but at least explain on what point and why interpretations differ.
Semiotica
The aim of the present study is to evaluate Sonja Foss’s Rhetorical Schema for the Evaluation of Visual Imagery (1994) as well as reflect upon several points for further consideration; and finally suggest a renewed triadic approach as a method for analyzing art-relevant visual imagery. The triadic approach to be discussed assumes three correlative layers: the intellectual knowledge, function of the artistic content as the visual representational component, and aesthetics as modality. This study will include the analysis of a print advertisement that used an artwork as its content of visual rhetoric, and this will inform further discussions on the proposed approach. The contribution of this renewed triadic approached to the field of visual rhetoric has the advantage of expanding and possibly improving rhetorical analysis methods of visual imagery.