11 - Olson and Bruce on Visual Rhetoric, Sentences PDF

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Lecture 11...

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11. Olson and Bruce on Visual Rhetoric Enargeia – “vividness” Metonym – a figure of speech that substitutes cause for effect, effect for cause, agent for act Photo of a dead boy: 11.1 “The photographic image of Emmett Till’s corpse put a shocking and monstrous face on the most brutal extremes of American racial injustice… The grainy image was widely circulated in the black press, and thousands of mourners viewed his body directly at the funeral home. The imagery of the Till case…became a crucial visual vocabulary that articulated the ineffable qualities of American racism in ways words simply could not” (Harold and DeLuca, “Beholding the Corpse,” 258). Image of the violence is a word in American culture (racism) 11.2 “Rhetoric, as conceived in the earlier book [Emblems of American Community] and here, refers to an aspect of symbolic action in general, not verbal language in particular” (Olson, Franklin’s Vision of American Community, xiii). Rhetoric deals with any action that attends to its own appearance (to publish images was to act rhetorically, understanding the images = decode symbolic information) Material culture: 11.3 “In order to redress the historical inequity of ignoring a large segment of the population who produced no literary legacy, scholars have therefore turned to studying…‘the things they left behind’” (Thomas J. Schlereth; cited in Olson, Emblems of American Community, xvii). We can look at images or things that people lived with if we cant read their work Rhetoric is elite education How cultures disagree 11.4 “What underlying cultural conditions encourage or discourage speaking in public forums? What sociological factors, for example, account for speech and silence? Who speaks to and for the community? With what kinds of power and authority? With access to which public forums?” (Olson, “Lorde Transforming Silence into Language and Action,” 49). 11.5

“Perhaps for some of you here now, I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am woman, because I am black, because I am lesbian, because I am myself—a black woman warrior poet doing her work—come to ask you, ‘Are you doing yours?’” (Audre Lorde; cited in Olson, “Lorde Transforming Silence into Language and Action,” 61).

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“Silence as a communicative action is associated with social situations in which there is a known and unequal distribution of power among focal participants”

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(Charles A. Braithwaite; cited in Olson, “Lorde Transforming Silence into Language and Action,” 52). Power structure – giving away of speech to remain an image, feeling of entitlement, lack of talent 11.7 “Silence as a communication action is associated with social situations in which the relationship of the focal participants is uncertain, unpredictable, or ambiguous” (Keith Basso; cited in Olson, “Lorde Transforming Silence into Language and Action,” 52). 11.8 “I have come to believe over and over that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood” (Audre Lorde; cited in Olson, “Lorde Transforming Silence into Language and Action,” 57). The task is justice 11.9 “What are the words you do not yet have? What is it that you need to say? What are the tyrannies that you swallow day after day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them eventually, still in silence?” (Audre Lorde; cited in Olson, “Lorde Transforming Silence into Language and Action,” 58). Speech practices that power structures have not given you Making due in an unjust situation is about contouring your body and speech to fit the silloute that has been thrust upon you 11.10 “The spectacle of Madonna kissing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV Music Awards suggests that a ‘lesbian’ kiss fits comfortably, if contingently, within a heterosexual male gaze often containing it” (Morris and Sloop, “What Lips These Lips Have Kissed,” 85). Male gaze is more important than the kiss Concentrated stare (hes focused), small nod 11.11 “Each public kiss between a man and woman serves as a reiteration and reaffirmation of heteronormativity” (Morris and Sloop, “What Lips These Lips Have Kissed,” 81). 11.12

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“In order to achieve a queer world, a ‘critical visual mass’ of same-sex public kissing must exist, [and this would also be] a rhetorical project that influences the meanings articulated by those acts” (Morris and Sloop, “What Lips These Lips Have Kissed,” 87). “If a still photo can slow down the viewer, it might nurture a more reflective, more deliberative mentality” (Hariman and Lucaites, “Public Identity and Collective Memory in U.S. Iconic Photography,” 194).

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Photography creates a public of spectators , the public gather around an image to make an democratic assembly 11.14 “The multiple transcriptions and deep ambivalences of visual eloquence allow skilled advocates a rich repertoire for democratic deliberation. Iconic photographs are calls to civic action, sites of controversy, vehicles for ideological control, and sources of rhetorical invention” (Hariman and Lucaites, “Public Identity and Collective Memory in U.S. Iconic Photography,” 188-9). Gather around and think about it together Images – sources of rhetorical invention 11.15 How Philly Moves “visually enables the viewer to experience something quite similar to what took place at the photo shoots [on which the public art installation is based] —trying to imaginatively recreate movement, fill in the gaps of the parking garage structure, and think about where such dance moves came from, and where they are going. The mural invites a response, a sense of fellow-feeling, rather than monumental awe. It offers a range of affective experience to prospective visitors other than iconic or experience marketing” (Bruce, “How Philly Moves,” 17).

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