Political rhetoric in visual images
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Georges Roque
Abstract
Given the nature of fixed visual images, visual rhetoric is usually seen as monologic. However, in some cases, an analysis of images can reveal them to be dialogic in a weak sense. This hypothesis is examined taking as examples political images, mostly posters, protesting against war. One obvious possibility consists in introducing a written dialogue in the poster. More interestingly, in many posters there is a play between text and image: since an image cannot directly negate, it often shows the crude reality of war. In these cases, it is the text that negates what is affirmed by the image. The opposition between images showing the destructiveness of war and texts rejecting war is analysed both rhetorically and in terms of Ducrot’s theory of polyphony. Finally, parodies and pastiches provide good examples of a kind of dialogue between an image and its source.
Abstract
Given the nature of fixed visual images, visual rhetoric is usually seen as monologic. However, in some cases, an analysis of images can reveal them to be dialogic in a weak sense. This hypothesis is examined taking as examples political images, mostly posters, protesting against war. One obvious possibility consists in introducing a written dialogue in the poster. More interestingly, in many posters there is a play between text and image: since an image cannot directly negate, it often shows the crude reality of war. In these cases, it is the text that negates what is affirmed by the image. The opposition between images showing the destructiveness of war and texts rejecting war is analysed both rhetorically and in terms of Ducrot’s theory of polyphony. Finally, parodies and pastiches provide good examples of a kind of dialogue between an image and its source.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction: Rhetoric or how to integrate the different voices ix
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Part I. Rhetorical Paradigms
- Rhetoric in the Mixed Game 3
- The selection of agency as a rhetorical device: Opening up the scene of dialogue through ventriloquism 23
- Dialogic rhetoric, coauthorship, and moments of meeting 39
- The rhetoric of 'dialogue' in metadiscourse: Possibility/impossibility arguments and critical events 55
- Rhetoric and ethic of dialog: Can conditions of performance serve as excluding criteria? 69
- Common ground and (re)defanging the antagonistic: A paradigm for argumentation as shared inquiry and responsibility 83
- What is the role of arguments? Fundamental human rights in the age of spin 95
- Logical and rhetorical rules of debate 119
- Rhetoric in a dialectical framework: Fallacies as derailments of strategic manoeuvring 133
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Part II. Rhetoric in the Mixed Game: Communicative means, cultural values, and institutional games
- Strategic use of Korean honorifics: Functions of 'partner-deference sangdae-nopim' 155
- Irony as a rhetorical device in dialogic interaction 171
- Political rhetoric in visual images 185
- Sociological concepts and their impact on rhetoric: Japanese language concepts 195
- The rhetorical component of dialogic communication in Banks' annual reports 209
- Attention-influencing as a rhetorical strategy in German and Turkish Parliamentary debates 221
- Diatexts of media dilemmas: The rhetorical construction of euthanasia 235
- Recontextualization of concepts in European legal discourse 251
- A court judgment as dialogue 267
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Part III. Round table discussion: Concepts of rhetoric, dialogue and argumentation
- Round table discussion 285
- General Index 309
- List of Contributors 315
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction: Rhetoric or how to integrate the different voices ix
-
Part I. Rhetorical Paradigms
- Rhetoric in the Mixed Game 3
- The selection of agency as a rhetorical device: Opening up the scene of dialogue through ventriloquism 23
- Dialogic rhetoric, coauthorship, and moments of meeting 39
- The rhetoric of 'dialogue' in metadiscourse: Possibility/impossibility arguments and critical events 55
- Rhetoric and ethic of dialog: Can conditions of performance serve as excluding criteria? 69
- Common ground and (re)defanging the antagonistic: A paradigm for argumentation as shared inquiry and responsibility 83
- What is the role of arguments? Fundamental human rights in the age of spin 95
- Logical and rhetorical rules of debate 119
- Rhetoric in a dialectical framework: Fallacies as derailments of strategic manoeuvring 133
-
Part II. Rhetoric in the Mixed Game: Communicative means, cultural values, and institutional games
- Strategic use of Korean honorifics: Functions of 'partner-deference sangdae-nopim' 155
- Irony as a rhetorical device in dialogic interaction 171
- Political rhetoric in visual images 185
- Sociological concepts and their impact on rhetoric: Japanese language concepts 195
- The rhetorical component of dialogic communication in Banks' annual reports 209
- Attention-influencing as a rhetorical strategy in German and Turkish Parliamentary debates 221
- Diatexts of media dilemmas: The rhetorical construction of euthanasia 235
- Recontextualization of concepts in European legal discourse 251
- A court judgment as dialogue 267
-
Part III. Round table discussion: Concepts of rhetoric, dialogue and argumentation
- Round table discussion 285
- General Index 309
- List of Contributors 315
