1st Edition

W.J.T. Mitchell's Image Theory Living Pictures

Edited By Krešimir Purgar Copyright 2017
    310 Pages
    by Routledge

    310 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    W.J.T. Mitchell – one of the founders of visual studies – has been at the forefront of many disciplines such as iconology, art history and media studies. His concept of the pictorial turn is known worldwide for having set new philosophical paradigms in dealing with our vernacular visual world. This book will help both students and seasoned scholars to understand key terms in visual studies – pictorial turn, metapictures, literary iconology, image/text, biopictures or living pictures, among many others – while systematically presenting the work of Mitchell as one of the discipline's founders and most prominent figures. As a special feature, the book includes three comprehensive, authoritative and theoretically relevant interviews with Mitchell that focus on different stages of development of visual studies and critical iconology.

    Introduction



    Krešimir Purgar



    Part 1: Towards a Critical Iconology



    1. The Changing Patterns of Iconology: Seven Questions to Mitchell from the 20th Century



    Timothy Erwin



    2. What is an Image? W.J.T. Mitchell's Picturing Theory



    Francesco Gori



    3. Post-Structuralist Iconology: Genealogical and Historical Concerns of Mitchell's Image Science



    György E. Szőnyi



    4. Iconology as Cultural Symptomatology: Dinosaurs, Clones and the Golden Calf in Mitchell's Image Theory



    Krešimir Purgar



    5. Words and Pictures in the Age of the Image: An Interview with W.J.T. Mitchell



    Andrew McNamara



    Part II: (Post)Disciplinary Context



    6. From Image/Text to Biopictures: Key Concepts in W.J.T. Mitchell's Image Theory



    Michele Cometa



    7. The Birth of the Discipline: W.J.T. Mitchell and the Chicago School of Visual Studies 



    Ian Verstegen



    8. What Discipline? On Mitchell’s "Interdisciplinarity" and German Medienwissenschaft



    Jens Schröter





    9. Mitchell and Boehm – A Dialogue: Image Science in the European Context



    Luca Vargiu



    10. Images and their Incarnations: An Interview with W.J.T. Mitchell



    Asbjørn Grønstad, Øyvind Vågnes



    Part III: Interpretive Readings



    11. What Do Photographs Want? Mitchell’s Theory of Photography from the Camera Obscura to the Networked Lens



    Thomas Stubblefield



    12. The Eyes Have Ears: Sound in W.J.T. Mitchell’s Pictures from Paragone to Occupy Wall Street



    Hannah Higgins



    13. Living Pictures of Democracy: W.J.T. Mitchell's Iconology as Political Philosophy



    Maxime Boidy



    14. Showing Showing: Reading Mitchell's "Queer" Metapictures



    John Paul Ricco



    15. After the Pictorial Turn: An Interview with W.J.T.

    Biography

    Krešimir Purgar is Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. Among his recent titles is the co-edited volume Theorizing Images (2016), as well as the articles "Coming to Terms with Images: Visual Studies and Beyond" (2016) and "What is not an Image (Anymore)? Iconic Difference, Immersion, and Iconic Simultaneity in the Age of Screens" (2015).