Picture theory : essays on verbal and visual representation
- Author
- Mitchell, W. J. T.
- Document type
- Livre
- Language
English
- Source
- ill.; bibliogr. ref.; index ; xv, 445 p. ; 1994
- ISBN
- 0-226-53231-3
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press, Chicago (usa)
- Publication country
- United States
- Abstract (en)
- Although we have thousands of words about pictures, Mitchell contends we do not yet have a satisfactory theory of them. Identifying the problems inherent in the attempt to master visual representation with verbal discourse, Mitchell proposes to "picture theory." He looks at the way pictures function in theories about culture, consciousness, and representation, and at theory itself as a form of picturing. What precisely, he asks, are pictures (and theories about pictures) doing now, in the late 20th c., when the power of the visual is said to be greater than ever before, and the "pictorial turn" supplants the "linguistic turn" in the study of culture. What is it about visual images that gives them the power both to "invite" and "repel" texts? The author explores this question in a variety of literary practices (graphic inscription, ekphrastic poetry, and the role of description in slave narrative) and in the visual arts including painting, sculpture and photography. Mitchell goes on to investigate the relation of visual images to power and publicity, the twin problems of illusionism and realism, the powers of spectacle and surveillance in the context of debates over pictures as "natural" and "socially constructed" signs.
- Subject (en)
- Subject (fr)
- Origin
DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)
Identifier19950101-00309659
Sauf mention contraire ci-dessus, le contenu de cette notice bibliographique peut être utilisé dans le cadre d'une licence CC BY 4.0 / Unless otherwise stated above, the content of this bibliographic record may be used under a CC BY 4.0 license
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