Understanding Propaganda: The Epistemic Merit Model and Its Application to Art

Abstract

Pablo Picasso's Guernica, Francisco de Goya's Fifth of May, Eugene Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, George Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier, Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, and D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, are all examples of expressly political art. Historically some art has been not only an object of aesthetic appreciation, but has also embodied and imparted a political message. Understanding the way art can be used to further political aims is an important part of art education. I contend that it is as important to investigate the political and cultural uses of art as it is to engage in the more traditional inquiries of form and style. To further this end, I propose a new model of that can better accommodate the phenomenon of art propaganda. Propaganda, in current usage, has a pejorative sense; however, at one time propaganda was understood to mean mere persuasion. My aim in this essay is to rehabilitate as a term of analysis while accounting for the pejorative sense has come to have. First, I provide a conceptual analysis of propaganda. In doing so, I develop a new model of the epistemic merit model. I argue that this model will enable us to identify and assess in general. Second, I show that my definition is especially well-suited to cases where the in question is also a work of art, since art, from posters and pamphlets to films and novels, has been a particularly prevalent means for the dissemination of propaganda.