Visual Rhetoric Research Articles

See That in a Small Town: Visual Rhetoric, Race, and Legal History in Tennessee

See That in a Small Town: Visual Rhetoric, Race, and Legal History in Tennessee

Caravaggio’s The Crucifixion of St. Peter

This paper explores conflations of martyrdom, spectatorship, and image theory in Caravaggio’s Crucifixion of St. Peter (1601). It argues that Caravaggio employs an “iconic” visual formula as a response to the pressures of a post-Tridentine poetics. Through these strategies, an iconography of immediacy and presence is paired with a sacrificial subject-matter. This merging united witness and visual experience in the shape of the sacred image. Martyrdom, as both a historical and representational phenomenon of early modern sociality and culture, invoked the act of spectatorship. In connecting the Crucifixion of St. Peter with the cultural and aesthetic paradigms of post-Tridentine Italy, the article argues that Caravaggio’s image re-imagines the codes of iconic repre­sentation. While not a novel academic context for Caravaggio scholarship, I will read this image less as the expression of stylistic tensions in the Roman artworld than as the result of overlapping frameworks—martyrdom, Petrine iconography, and a Counter-Reformation aesthetic. Reenergized as part of the visual rhetoric of Tridentine politics, the icon reflected a new propensity for paleochristian cultural revival. Discussing both the contextual pressures of this new aesthetic regime as well as intertwining it with the increasing presence of Catholic image treatises, the article suggests an “iconic” space for reading Caravaggio’s Crucifixion. This “iconic” framework is built into the charged discourse surrounding the image itself.

Stepping over the line of segregation – the visual argument of picturebook narratives from the sit-in movement

Six decades after the historic sit-in movement, the city of Greensboro, North Carolina, once an epicentre of the Civil Rights Movement, still exhibits de facto segregation along racial divides. The division within the city of Greensboro poses a question that many places in the U.S. struggle to answer: how to address a painful history while promoting optimism for the future. This paper advocates for the use of storytelling in children’s picturebooks which have been cited as one of the most effective tools for encouraging social action and promoting positive societal values. The article discusses two picturebooks, Sit-in Movement: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down (2010) and Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins (2007). The analysis of the picturebooks draws on the working strategies of O’Rourke and Pace (2020), including the visual rhetoric of the illustrations, somatic rhetoric, elements of performative studies, and the legacies of the sit-ins.

Examining Sojourners as Visual Influencers in VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives) Tourism: A Rhetorical Analysis of User-Generated Images

This study decodes the functions and meanings conveyed through sojourner user-generated images (UGI) and furthers the application of the theory of visual rhetoric to tourism by examining the online visual communications of sojourners—an understudied yet critical group of consumers and producers of tourism. A two-step qualitative mixed-method approach, involving expert interviews and visual rhetorical analysis of 453 sojourner UGI was adopted. Key findings resulted in the conceptualization of a theoretical framework that explains the construction of sojourner UGI. The framework identifies contemporary online visual culture, and the different frames sojourners move between (tourist, resident, home, and away) as factors that shape, and differentiate sojourner UGI from those of tourists. Collectively, the findings provide an initial understanding of sojourners as key visual influencers/online organic agents that offer destinations, specifically conurbations, the reach, relevance, and resonance in targeting the unique VFR segment, a key post-crises tourism segment.

Visual Rhetoric Analysis of “A Photo of a COVID-19 Victim in Indonesia Trigger Fear and Denial” by Joshua Irwandi

Photojournalism by Joshua Irwandi uploaded on social media Instagram caused various responses among netizens. The photo showed the figure of a human body which was the corpse of a person who died from Covid-19 placed on a bed. This figure looked stiff and was wrapped in a shroud with plastic coated all over their body. The purpose of this research is to find out the visual rhetoric and elements of message arrangement in Joshua Irwandi’s photo work. This research uses a qualitative approach with Sonja K. Foss’ visual rhetoric analysis. The results of the analysis show that persuasive visual rhetoric will have an effect on the audience, if the visual symbols presented are familiar and close to the audience and are currently happening.
 
 Keywords: Visual rhetoric, photography, Joshua Irwandi, Covid-19

Sculptural Display of the Smintheion in Troas: visual rhetoric in the context of a Hellenistic sanctuary

The temple of Apollo Smintheus near the village of Gülpınar (north-western Turkey, Troas) is undoubtedly among the most important monuments of the Hellenistic Age. The latest publications on the temple and sanctuary complex allow a more accurate and precise assessment of this remarkable building. Apollo bearing the epithet “Smintheus” (“Lord of mice”) appears in the opening lines of the Iliad and the very place of action is localized in the vicinity of Chrysa - an ancient town found near modern Göztepe, not far from Smintheion. These “Homeric” associations are reflected in the sculptural decoration of the temple: its frieze depicts scenes from the Iliad and later epic poems. Such a representation of the Trojan cycle, as a continuous narrative with direct reference to Homer and post-Homeric texts, has no precedent in earlier temple sculptures. In addition to the continuous frieze in the entablature, the sculptural decoration of the temple included columnae caelatae of two types - ornamental and figurative ones. Being placed on the top of the columns they formed a single semantic and visual unit with the frieze. In the present article the reach sculptural display of the temple is carefully analyzed. The author demonstrates the way in which various visual languages - narrative, associative, and symbolic - were involved in the mechanisms of creating memory, maintaining the aristocratic ideology and specific aspects of the local cult.

Caricature and National Character: The United States at War

Caricature and National Character: The United States at War

New Wine Needs to Be Put Into New Bottles: Legitimating Education for Sustainability in South Korea's Higher Education Institutions

Abstract The aim of the paper is to critically examine the practices of teaching and learning for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Korea (Korea). With the use of a case study, this paper offers a close examination of the practices carried out at Seoul National University and Kyung Hee University in Korea, focusing on how the SDGs are embedded in teaching and learning for sustainable development and identifying barriers and challenges in the process. A few specific initiatives and curriculum developments to meet the SDGs have been identified, but their rhetorical visions and practices of teaching and learning contradict, resulting in little actual transformation. This study reveals the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of teaching and learning for the SDGs from the perspective of transformative learning and offers policy suggestions to provide a well-rooted practice of educating the SDGs in Korean HEIs.

'Men shal nat maken ernest of game': The Knights of the Alt-Right

This essay explores the ways in which alt-right groups appropriate and exploit the figure of the medieval knight. Because the alt-right relies heavily on social media to get out its message, this essay offers teachers some methods for interrogating the visual rhetoric of medieval knighthood presented by the alt-right, to unpack the memes and lulz, trolling and remixing that constitute alt-right medievalism. (LF and MBS)

A Ming Chinese and Spanish Imperial Collaboration in Southeast Asia: The Boxer Codex

The Boxer Codex is a ca. 1591 compilation of accounts, written in or translated into Spanish, of the peoples of Southeast Asia alongside illustrations made by a Christian Sangley (Manila Chinese) artist. Scholars should understand this work not as hybrid but as a collaboration between imperial cultures. Evidence of the self-portrait of the artist as a Christianized Sangley and the earliest-known image of a bayoguin, a Tagalog man operating as a female spiritual, medical, and community leader, suggests the rewards of attending to the visual rhetorics of colonization alongside current scholarly emphases on materiality and trade.

Visuelle Rhetorik zwischen Theorie und Praxis

Abstract Rhetoric is based on the observation of successful persuasion with words. In the 1960 s, structuralists put new hope into the art of persuasion’s body of knowledge to unveil the mechanisms of mass communication. Rhetoric should become a cultural model for visual literacy. A brief inventory of applied visual rhetoric in higher education (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) reveals the gap between academic fidelity and design practice that – to date – weakens the potential of what was envisioned 70 years ago: a fruitful integration of theory and practice to equip producers and consumers of visual artefacts with the frameworks and vocabularies needed to navigate increasingly ambiguous and complex media. Applied rhetoric not only increases the actionable space and responsible use of the persuasive power of visual communication, but also facilitates connectivity across disciplines. An example demonstrates how rhetoric can be implemented in design education by putting applicability and added value in the center.

Реториката в съвременното българско образование

This text presents two contemporary publications dedicated to the teaching of rhetoric in Bulgarian secondary and higher education institutions. The books summarize the authors' experience in theoretical modeling and practical presentation in modern online formats of various oratorical approaches, as well as the creation of text types that require different communicative and oratorical competencies. In the teaching aid “Online Rhetoric Course” a special glossary has been prepared, which includes more than 100 terms, starting from metaphor and reaching terms from modern visual rhetoric. In the book “Teaching Rhetoric Online. Open resources” there are developed methodological guidelines for writing and delivering various types of speeches: from solemn speeches through business speeches and motivational speeches. The teaching aid also contains instructions for preparing and conducting debates and discussions, which are established dialogic rhetorical genres and formats useful for various specialists in various professional fields. The study aid has podcasts, one of which is with speeches voiced and delivered by an actor in Bulgarian, not only in English. The aids will be useful to a wide range of professionals who wish to improve their public speaking skills.

Den nakna sanningen

In the summer of 1932, Dagbräckning [Daybreak], the first Swedish nudist journal, was founded with the mission of getting people to sunbathe, swim and do gymnastics naked. It was soon followed by Natur och Hälsa [Nature and Health] and Solvännen [Sun Friend], which alongside Dagbräckning sparkled interest in the emerging Swedish nudist movement. A recurring feature in these journals were conversion narratives in which men and women described how they became nudists. This article analyzes thirty-six conversion narratives from the 1930s and 1940s and demonstrates how a narrative structure drawn from a religious context helped nudists to make sense of their new identity and convince others of the possibilities of nudism. Using Ernest G. Bormann’s concept of rhetorical vision and his symbolic convergence theory as an interpretive framework, the article shows that in this religiously inispired way the nudists weaved together their experiences into a more encompassing drama about the freedom that awaited those who chose to practice nudism: freedom from clothing that obstructed natural movements, freedom from prejudice that limited individual thinking and freedom from rules that restricted social contacts

Have Faith and Question Everything: Understanding QAnon's Allure

QAnon is an influential conspiracy theory centering on a nefarious “deep state” network. The core of the movement is Q, an unknown individual claiming to have classified access. This article examines one year of Q’s posts. These highly influential texts are read by followers, who follow the “crumbs” and “bake” them into conspiratorial narratives. Drawing on rhetorical criticism methods, the article conducts a baseline coding of these posts and develops an explanatory schema consisting of two fantasy themes. Faith is one theme, with spiritual language evoking an apocalyptic battle between the children of light and the children of darkness. Skepticism is another theme, with posts championing the enlightened individual who employs free-thought to uncover the truth. These elements blend powerful religious narratives with contemporary ideals of critical thinking and independent knowledge construction. This unique rhetorical vision contributes one explanation for QAnon’s ability to mobilize an increasingly large and diverse following.

Tswana-speaking students’ perceptions of HIV/AIDS and poverty

This article addresses the perceptions of the causal relationship between poverty andHIV/AIDS among selected Tswana-speaking students by using the theoretical frameworkof one of the theories of symbolic interactionism, also known as the Fantasy ThemeAnalysis or Symbolic Convergence theory. This theory is designed to provide insights intothe shared world views of communicators, which would result in a better understandingof a rhetorical situation. This understanding will enable communication agents toarticulate more audience-centred messages in their combat against HIV/AIDS.This article describes the theoretical framework and research method that have beenused. After the synthesis of the findings, recommendations are made with regard tocommunication with this specific target audience, but suggestions are also given toaddress any target audience. The research indicates that there are two shared rhetorical visions exist. Almost 74% ofthe respondents shared the vision that poverty is the cause of AIDS, although most ofthem mentioned that unprotected sex with multiple partners plays a major role. Theother vision, shared by 26% of the respondents, perceives unprotected intercourse withseveral partners, and not poverty, to be the cause. The lack of values and morals as wellas uncontrolled sexual drives are perceived as contributing factors.

Visualizing a Drug Abuse Epidemic: Media Coverage, Opioids, and the Racialized Construction of Public Health Frameworks

In technical and professional communication, the social justice turn calls on us to interrogate sites of positionality, privilege, and power to help foreground strategies that can empower marginalized groups. I propose that mainstream media coverage of the opioid epidemic represents such a site because addiction to these drugs, which initially primarily affected White people, has been positioned as a public health issue rather than a criminal justice problem. I explore the strategies that were used to create this positioning by investigating themes in the visual rhetoric as conveyed through data visualizations and in the text of the articles in which these graphics were published. My results align with two previous studies that confirmed this public health framing. I also observed an emphasis on mortality, which contributes to our understanding of rhetorical strategies that can be used to engender support rather than condemnation for those suffering from drug addiction.

Iconic 21st Century Activist "T-Shirt and Tote-Bag" Combination Is Hard to Miss These Days!

Iconic 21st Century Activist "T-Shirt and Tote-Bag" Combination Is Hard to Miss These Days!

Visual Representation of the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests: Comparing US Mainstream Media Images to Citizens’ Social Media Postings

This study set out to examine how the US broadcast media visually presented the 2020 Black Lives Matter. We compared news content collected from mainstream websites to those generated by citizen journalists and posted on Twitter. The purpose was to examine whether the two shared common narratives in their visual representation of the protestors. Through visual rhetoric frames, our findings suggest that citizen journalists’ picture narratives were humanistic and presented women and children as major players in the protests. On the other hand, visual rhetoric in the US media sites were characterized by narratives of violence, male-focused, and lacking racial diversity.

Working in the Electronic Garden: The Visual Rhetoric of Herman Miller's Action Office.

The image on the cover of this journal represents the intersection of two important architectural and technological changes to American offices in the 1970s: the growth of the open-plan office and the transformation of corporate computing. This advertising image shows how manufacturer Herman Miller promoted its Action Office furniture system as a means of facilitating and supporting these twin developments, portraying the modern office as a verdant electronic garden. Through a close reading of the imagery, the author argues that the representation of people, plants, computers, and furniture is designed to convey both the humanizing qualities of the open-plan concept and the system's technical and aesthetic aspects. The image is a rich primary source that reveals important aspects of the rhetoric of Herman Miller.

The Big Short's Incoherence, Documentary Aesthetics, and Use of Direct Address

<i>The Big Short</i>'s Incoherence, Documentary Aesthetics, and Use of Direct Address