Carolyn Handa. Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World. Bedford-St. Martins. 2004. ISBN: 0312409753
Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2006. ISBN: 0-415-31915-3
Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites. No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy. University of Chicago Press, 2007. ISBN: 0-226-31612-2
Ann Marie Seward Barry. Visual Intelligence: Perception, Image, and Manipulation in Visual Communication. SUNY Press, 1997. ISBN: 0-7914-3436-2
This course focuses on two fundamental questions in the areas of Visual Rhetoric and Visual Semiotics, namely, how language-like are 'visuals' and how do certain images acquire exceptional power to rouse our feelings and even convey our cultural identity(ies)? We will begin with Roland Barthes' famous claim that photographs communicate without a code and question whether that claim still holds in this age of ever increasing digital image manipulation. We will look closely at Kress and van Leeuwen's Reading Images to consider whether and in what ways it is useful to speak of a grammar of visual design. And we will look at different claims about 'visual literacy'.
We then move from signification to embodiment and power (particularly cultural power), beginning with the first few chapters of Ann Marie Seward Barry's Visual Intelligence. This takes up the ancient theme of emotion v. reason in relation to modern neurophysiology of vision and the power of images to manipulate and persuade. We then turn to the Hariman and Lucaites book on iconic photographs and a portion of Benedikt Feldges' book on iconic figures created in American TV, where generally it is argued that certain images come to convey our cultural identities by the way they are deployed rather than by their intrinsic visual qualities. This will also engage us in issues of witnessing, documentary, and the ethics of viewing.
Written work for the seminar will include collecting and analyzing images and a seminar paper addressing one of the controversial issues touched on in the course.
WARNING! The word icon is used–differently– in almost everything we read.
Some shorter analytic projects, entries on the Class Board and a final paper outlining a position on one of the main issues presented in the course.
| Date | Reading | Topics | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 April | (none) | Organization&Issues: Semiotic v. rhetorical approaches |
|
| 4 April | Barthes, in Handa 151-63 [Panzani] cf. Scott McCloud, p.153, p. 154, p. 155 |
Word v. image | Project #1 assigned: Limits of Images |
| 9 April | KvL: Intro, c.1 Colin Ware on Flow Diagrams |
[Project #1] | |
| 11 April | McCloud in Handa, 195-208 KvL, c.2 Writing with Images: Naturalism vs. Abstraction (Mishra in Handa) |
Modality, abstraction, color | |
| 16 April | KvL, c. 5 | Modality and Models of mundane life Some Flickr Links and HDR |
Project #1 due |
| 18 April | KvL,c. 7 | Materiality, Color | [Project #2] |
| 23 April | KvL, c.4 Iraq War Images |
social actors and agency; the gaze | |
| 25 April | Kvl, c. 6 (Peled-Elhanen, 2009) View:Rheim Alkadhi: Artist's Statement:My Lover in Unequal Parts (2006) |
Composition and Layout | Project # 2 due |
| 30 April | Barry, Intro and c. 1 | Visual Perception, Gestalt Laws | |
| 2 May | Barry, c. 2 | The power of images | |
| 7 May | Barry, c. 3 | The Language of Images | |
| 9 May | Birdsall & Groarke, in Handa 309-320 J. Anthony Blair in Handa 344-363 |
The rhetorical perspective: Argument, Genre, Cases |
|
| 14 May | Kenney, in Handa, 320-42 Loan Mogadishu And again Kevin Carter PP-winning pic Hobbs in Handa, 55-70 |
Themes from the old rhetoric | |
| 16 May | Azoulay, c. 3 Background for Azoulay |
Morality of viewing Rachel Corrie (see wiki) |
|
| 21 May | Hariman &Lucaites, cc. 1-2 Ethel Rosenburg Matthew Brady: Bodies at Gettysburg Sanna Dullaway Loan again |
Icons and iconoclasm in public culture | |
| 23 May | Hariman &Lucaites, cc. 3-4 | The Borders of the Genre Performing Civic Identity | Big Kiss Cruising Manet |
| 28 May | Hariman &Lucaites, c. 6: Sturken, in Handa, 401-16 |
Trauma and Public Memory The Falling Man Views of Tank Man |
|
| 30 May | Kim Stringfellow,Invisible 5-Audio Project Kim Stringfellow, Jackrabbit Homestead Russet Lederman, Barely Skin Deep: an on-line documentary on feminine beauty |
Rhetoric for the Web: Documentary |
A critique of one of these posted to the Bulletin Board |
| 4 June | Kristin Arola, Rhetoric, Christmas Cards, And Infertility: A Season Of Silence Erin R. Anderson, The Olive Project: an oral history composition in multiple modes Joyce Dallal, Finding Home |
Memoir and Reflective/exploratory writing | A critique of one of these posted to the Bulletin Board |
| 6 June | The Movement of Air, The Breath of Meaning: Aurality and Multimodal Composing Madeleine Sorapure: Between Modes: Assessing Students' New Media Compositions |
Criteria for Evaluation | Assignment for an online piece of writing posted to Board |
