Textual and visual

l. Theoretical considerations on the image: representation, approaches, classifications etc

2. Relationship between visual and verbal arts

3. Ekphrasis - theoretical background; examples: John Keats - Ode on a Grecian Urn, Salman Rushdie, V. S.Naipaul, Ben Okri

4. Graphics and text illustration: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, W. Blake, Lewis Carroll, Alasdair Gray

5. Photography - image analysis (Dorothy Lange, Cindy Sherman, Henri-Cartier Bresson etc.)

6. Print and typographic artifices: unconventional use offonts, punctuation, characters, blanks etc- Ideograms, visual symbolism- Covers, blurbs, book graphic presentation (various editions)

1. TIre text between stages and pages: drama analysis (S. Beckett, Waitingfor Godot)

8. Cinematographic adaptations: (W. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Drea.m)

g. Dance and its literary representations: e.g.: the image of Dancing Shivain literature;

BibliographyJean-Jacques Wunenburger, Fil ozofia imaginilor, Polirom 2004Gilbert Durand, Antropologia structurala a imaginantlur, Univers encyclopedic, 2000Alan Besancon, Imaginea interzisa - [storia intelectuala a iconoclsmului de la Platon la Kandiski, Hur:ranitas,1994

Sebeok, Thomas, Signs: An ntroduction to Semiotics, University of 'foronto Press, 1994Douglas Kellner, Media Czilture, Routledge, 1995Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen, Film Theory and Criticism, Oxford University Press, l999Barthes, Roland. 1967.Elements of Semiolog,,, Annette Lavers & Colin Smith (trans.), London: Jonathan CapeBrunette, Peter, Wilis, David. 1994. Deconstnrction and the Visual Arts - Art, Madia, Architecture, CambridgeUniversity PressHeidegger, Martin. 1974. The Origin of the Work o/lrf, New York: Harper & RowIampolski, Mikhail. 1998. The Memory of Tiresias: Intertextuality and Film, University of'California PressIarovici, Eugen. 1989. Fotografa si htmea de azi,Bucuresti: Ed. TehnicaMitchell, W.J.T. 1994. Ekphrasis and the Other, University of Chicago PressMarin, Ileana- 2003. Pictura prerffielita sub semnttl naratiwlui, Bucuresti: Meridiane

Course I

Literary and Visual : Theo retical Considerations

A theoretical approach ofthe visual and its relation to the literary field is a considerably difficult task since images havecome to dominate almost each and every domain of human activity and since the forms they might acquire could beinnulnerable. Theoretically placed somewhere between real and unreal, concrete and abstract, mental and perceptir.,e,images help us represent the world, mentall-v assimilate it and record it. The image originates in sensorial perceptionsbased on experience and is also completed by intellectual dimensions and affective features which make it a ver_vcomplex eletnent. No science or field of human interest can be conieived outsicle the scope of a text and in a sinrilar wlythey cannot be conceived beyond the image.

An approximate definition sees the image (Irnago > irnage/ imagine) as a concrete representation of an abstractor material object which is present or absent fiom a perceptive point of view that establishes a relationship with itsreferent, allowing us to recognize and understand it. (see Wuhenburger, Philosophy of the Image)

Webster defi nition: Image

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, short for imagene,from Latin imagin-, imago; perhaps akin toLatin imitari to imitate (Date: l3th century)

1 : a reproduction or imitation of the form of a person or thing; especially: an imitation in solid form : sr,q,rug2 a: the optical counterpart ofan object produced by an optical device (as a lens or mirror) or an electronic deviceb : a visual representation ofsomething: as (1) : a likeness ofan object produced on a photographic material (2) : apicture produced on an electronic display (as a television or computer screen)3 a : exact likeness : SEMBLANCE b :a person strikingly like another person 4 a: a tangible or visible representation : INCARNATToN b archaic: an illusory form: APPARITION

5 a (1) : a mental picture or impression of something

1,.

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tf General representations of the image:

- Material representations of objects (based on perceptive impressions)- Abstractrepresentationsofideas- Placed between perception dnd conception (susceptible of being shaped by imagination and memory)The image can also be envisaged as a modality of mental representation, lts definition ma)i var)i from one domain to

the other. Generally taken as a material representation of a giveu object idrawing, photography etc), the image which is

produced or reproduced implies the mental preexistence of its representation (not necessarily based upon the visual

perception but also upon all the other senses).

a. Visual image predominallt in many fields of activity as it transl'ormswhich will engender a cognitive irnage. I'his may be immeCiate image

ohject) , consecutive, intuitive, oneiric, etc

b. Images of the senses : could include oral images (acoustic images defined by tonality, frequency, intensity,pitch etc) , tactile images (engendering a spatial representation of real object s), olfactory or tasrc related images

(allowing the association of a variety of cultural, personal, syinbolic connotations)

c. Sensorial images of movement - including movement, gestures (bociy language)An inherent connection between the visual and the verbal, belween visuai and linguistic representations was

long ago established through conflicting theorizations. Cognitive linguistics and phenomenology stress the importance

of mental images tlrat trigger language acts. Psychology tends to separate the two domains as the visual is mainly

associated to intuitive abilities (thus connected to the right hemisphere ofthe brain) and the verbal usually associated to

abstract analysis and the left hemisphere if the brain. Here the visual seems to gain the upper hand as it implies a direct

perception and mental representation of an object whereas the verbal is subjected to a second-hand representation,

obeying the rules of discourse, grammar, semantics etc.

The diehotomy logos vs. image has always represented the opposition Lretween the dynamic and the static; logos

has been associated to creation and to the endless possibility of engendering ever new mental images whereas the irnage

has been associated to the material, to the stasis of an entity which is arrested in a certain moment of its evolution. The

written word combines graphic sigrs and the perception of the eye that reads them; the spoken word combines the oral

information and ihe hearing that decipher it. The image was long ago introduced into the linguistic sphere starting with: 'i ' ' . I '.'the very first attempt of writing,or depictingreality. The systems of alphabetic writing made use of abstracJ sign for

Iettors whereas the ideographic systems used graphic signs rvith analogical features and phonetic elements. in this

regard, Chinese ideograms and Egyptian hieroglyphs are placed halllvay between the object and its linguisticrepresentation as well as between drawing and rvriting.

In Western culture there has always been a predominance of image and written word over the spoken word,

which is mainly visible in religion and arts.

Classifications of images abound according to different domains of applicability and various criteria ofdifferentiation and functions. They generally fall into two large categories that include mental or psychic images and the

exterior stimuli into mental information

(fonnetl right after the perception of an-.t, r'

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material ones, theorised by philosophy and psychology and respectively by art history and linguistics. Among themultitude of subcategories that might be highlighted within these broad categories are:a) Perceptive image defined as a present representation of an exterior object simultaneous with its perception

(functioning in praesentia); subliminal images might be arso incruded here

b) Mnemonic image - a nrental representation of an absent objecl (related to memory and its mechanisms)c) Anticipatory - - projected representations ofan exterior object which is going to happen or be createdd) Unconscious - - anyhing related to the mechanisms of the unconscious and theorised by psychoana[-"-sise) Verbal - - representingthe object ofstudy ofstylistics and general linguistics. They are meant to deepen and enrich

the significances of words though their interpretation and functions mav vary with the particular approaches tirattake them into consideration. The analysis oftropcs nnd stylistic devices are included here, especialfl, ,f," 111.,upi,o,as it implies a transfer or displacement oImeaning betvveen two concepts

0 Matrix images-underdeveloped mental images whose significance is dissipated in the form of language, drarvingor letter (presentecl as a code, an eniqma, an ideogram or hieroglyph); these type of image also include - thearchetypa! image (the ideal model for the representation of material reality, also implying an archetypal psychicmatrix), type (the mould of a material existence which ensures the reproduction of an image), prototype (astandardimage), paradigm (a simplified image that can be applied in different domains), ideal type (a generic image-concept built by abstractization)

g) Material image - the transposition of an image on a material thing (paper, film, stone, etc) which is the object ofstudy of art history. The classification of this type of,images is made according to its materialization,to the form ofrepresentation it displays, the techniques of production, means of reproduction (natural, specular, artificial,mimetic, simulacrum, iconic etc.)

In the process of image formation a particular emphasis has always been placed upon imitationr upon the image-mirror, pertaining to nzimesis.lt has been theorised starting with Plato who set the basis of a pertinent imagc analysiswhich served as interpretation for alt visible or invisible objects in the world as well. He spoke about a world of idealforms that exists in and for itself. Any representation (artistic or not) of such a Form is but a duplication of that Fornr inthe material world. In this regard, the entire existing world can be conceived as an accumulation of imagcs l.hat imitatethe imniaterial world of ideal Forms. Plato sustained the existenoe of a hierarchy of fbrms: ' , ,

An eidetic essence'c)onceived as an immateriat Figure that could only be perceived on a spiritual level- The pure Forms can acquire a particular configuration becoming mathematical inrages (numbers or geometrical

shapes as with Pythagoras); these pure Forms represent prototypes for any physical representation as they lend a spatio-temporal determination and a passage from Idea to Form, from spiritual to material.

- Physical representation ofthe form which can only be understood as an alteration ofthe pure Form.

3

Theoretical a pproaches of images

Epistemological a pproaches

Images started being analysed and interpreted in their various forms and representations beginning with the

Middle Ages when people got interested in the decodificalion of meltal and oneiric images which underwent an

ontological and theological approach. Symbolic images were taken over by occultism and alchemy whereas starting urith

Romanticism up to the 20m century, there was an ever increasing interest in rnythological and religious symbolism, in the

inrages ofthe unconscious and in art history.

All this abundance of images needed a methodological way of classification, analysis and research. For all

mental images, psychoanalysis provided an appropriate apparatus of investigation whereas for the artisticrepresentations, art history offered a pertinent approach. For the analysis ofrepresentations in general, a philosophy of

llre inrages lias bee.n devised"

Semiotic approach

In their abstract dimensions, images are analysed by serniotics which constructed a system of signs able to operate

upon any types of images, be they textual or visual. Similarly to the linguistic sign, the visual sign can as well be defincd

as consisting in two eleme nts: a signifier (representing an image or the material side) and the signified (concept) existing

in an arbitrary relation. Ferdinand de Saussure, the father of moderti linguistics, also took into consideration the intlices,

defined as the f'eatures of an object ihat allow its recognition and the synbol, theorised as an analogical representation

operating through resemblance with a referent.

C. S. Pierce established three types of images: icons, indexes and symbols. From this perspective the sign in histtA'

opinion possesfthree elements: representamen, irfterpretant and object. For E. Cassirer the symbolic forms (including

language, art, myth and sciene) are meant to be understood as a passive means of transcending the real towards an

expressive gtage, placed betvl'een real and ideal. The symbolic image ends the representation through verbal or visual

repetitionandinitiatesatypeofreprclductionthroughreflection.

Transcendental approach

' Within this type of approach images are given a structuralist treatment focused upon their symbolig features. Gilbe*Durand (The anthropalagical structures of thle imaginary), Levi Strauss (structural anthropolog), Paul Ricoeur (ta

metaphore vi,-e) agd Gaston Bachelard (Poetics of space, The psychaanalysis of Jire.., ) are perhaps the most important

repre5entatives...:::'.'.Hermeneutic approach

This approach originates in Antiquity (related to the interpretation of religious texts) and has gradually come to refer

to the interpretalion of both verbal and visual signs. J'here are two tendencics in hermeneutic analysis of images: one

focused upon explanation, irrespective of the subject and the other upon understanding, involving the subject in the

interpretation. What is generally termed as reductionist hermeneutics operates a demythologization of fictional stories

(myths) and tries to find a literal meaning under the numerous connotations, analogies and allegories. Its main purpose is

to discover the "primitive" enunciations, banishing all ambiguity. Its counterpart, amplifuing hermeneutics attempts the

discovery of hidden signifi cances.

4

The adepts of this approach focus upon the processes of understanding and explanation putting forth the"hermeneutical circle" (we cannot understand the whole if we do not understand the parts and vice versa). There were atleast two main trends in the hermeneutical approach which left their mark upon text interpretation : the intentionalisthermeneutics (the understanding of a text through reconstructing the auctorial intention) and anti-intentio,ali.sthernteneutics (understanding the terl. through more than identifying "intentions,, but going beyond u ,r.*". onu;;r;

"

Martin Heidegger's ideas, later developed by Flans Gadamer, are meant ro illustrate the fact lhat l.he n,r,or,..,and social context of a tcxt and implicitty of its interpreter cannor be overlooked. E.D. Hirsch, while defending thetraditional hermeneutical approach (Schlciermacher and Dilthey) nrakes the distinction between meaning (which ,.,iuinulhe same) and significance (which may ch4nge according io the interpreter,s intentions). ..The horizon of understanding,.,(iadamer says, "is what an interpreter actualizes from a text; significance is that actual speaking as heard t;; ";;;.;;;variable context of the interpreter's cxpcriential w'orld." 1t-unguug" as Determination orrrr" ;-;;;;;";;'""

" "

Hernteneutias suggests a type of analysis based on the relationship betwecn texts arrd their contexts rvhich s.ocsin two different diieclions: "aestheticising" - claiming that the lext transcends the conditionS of irs

"r"ution, guing

beyond social; historical, political and psychological elements, and politicizing - acknou,ledging the irnportan.. l, u,lthese elements, treated as belonging to a ceftain group at a certain moment in history, in the production of a literary textand ofan arlistic product in gencral.

Phenomenological approach

This approach involves the study ofconsciousness in orderto understand the relationships established between thesubject, the world and his/her representations of the world. It is mainly focused upon the interpretation of artistic andreligious images.

Ontological approach

A biased and reductionist reading of Plato's interpretation of the image goes towards an extreme clepreciation ofimages but the entire tradilion initiated by Plato only creatcd a hugc inreresl in thc essence and functions of the image. ttis defined as a manifestation of an intrinsic realitlr, an ambivalent expression of the process of being. ;t,1, il, ;;;;;essences' ideal Forms accessible only through intuitive consciousness, an-v portrayal of such essences is a second raterepresentation, similar but not identical to them. Plato was critical against the obsession of resernblance and not asainstthe proliferation"of reproductions; rvith him the verbal or visual imagc implies an ontological undcrstancling of the imageeven iIacknou'lcdged as a copy, sends back to the original tlrrough the t.vpos (the trace of the or.iginat e*isti,,g in ri-"coPY),'

the same time an original model for all future reproductions, a core significance and causal ,principal. plato was the one.

een tlre Form and the image it generaLec). )n.t-heRepublic he illustrates this idea through the allegory ofthe cave, sustaining that the soul, due to the typos present in anyimage, is open to the truth. Starting with Plato and under the influence of the following thinkers -a'pr,iroropti"rrtraditions, two diflerent approaches of the image have come to be known:

- A theory of pure knowledge where the image appears as a second hand representation of an ideal Form, prone.to deception and illusion

An esthetic conception of the image as a figural representation of what is hidden in the spiritual realm, as alimited expression of being.

Plato is very ironic against artists and vi$ual or verbal arts, treating creators as some mirror manipulators whoproduce nothing but illusions and copies (image-as-mirror). For hermeneutists, the image becomes a participant in

the manifestation of the being as it both imitates and completes or enriches reality.

, '. Images acquire special fealures when subjected to a theoiogical reaciing, a new religious ontology centered uponthe process of God's becoming an image for the benefit of the entire humanity that is thus allowed to participate in theultimate embodirnent of the image, the Son of God, thus coming back to a 5tate oidivine bliss. Christianity took over theJewish tradition and imagined the whole world as God's creation that resembled Him. 'Ihe fact that the entire creation is: . . .. :exterior to God and entirely differeni fiom Hirn led to the idea of God's silence.(Deus abscondiius) anil of a n.igative

theology. The Chrjstian Church will always emphasize the iconic connection ,between the Creator and gis Creation.,Esoteric interpretations see creation as a continuous process thrbugh which God creates the world inside Ilis own clivinebeing:so He is neither separated nor different from'His creation. ' '' ,

Christianity produced a4 entire series of images: the Father's image in the Son, the Son's image in the Eucharist

or in the i9on. The icon itself has led to two opposite tendencies: iconophily (preaching the consubstantiality Christ -icon and endowing icons with a tlreophantic function that goes beyond the image as a projection into the infinite divinity)

andiconoc|asm(rejectinganykindofrepresentationsandtreatingimagesasheathenworshippingofidols).

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