The Rhetorical Force of Landscape Art Essay - 1502 Words

The Rhetorical Force of Landscape Art Why talk about a rhetoric of images? The most obvious answer is that we live in an image-saturated society and a relevant rhetoric must pay attention to images, that W. J. T. Mitchell is right when he suggests that the rhetorical turn is being displaced by the pictorial turn. Beyond the obvious, the answers are multiple and layered. I want to suggest some answers by looking at some old pictures: Carleton Watkins landscape photographs of Yosemite and William Henry Jacksons landscape photographs and Thomas Morans water colors and paintings of Yellowstone. At a basic level, if rhetoric is, at the very least, about persuasion in conventional politics, images merit a look and have†¦show more content†¦Moran and Jackson accompanied the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories to Yellowstone in 1871. Their presence was not accidental. Jackson had recently become a permanent member of the expedition. Moran was sent with the backing of the Northern Pacific Railroad and Scribners to join the expedition. Ferdinand Hayden, the expeditions leader, was aware of the value of public relations and was also under orders from the Secretary of the Interior to secure as full material as possible for the illustration of your final report, such as sketches, photographs, etc.,(quoted in Kinsey, 1992, p. 49). As photographer Jackson recalled, No photographs had as yet been published, and Dr. Hayden was determined that the first ones should be good. A series of fine pictures would not only supplement his final report but tell the story to thousands who might never read it (1940, p. 196). Jacksons photographs and Morans watercolors and illustrations were instrumental in the successful lobbying effort to get Congress to designate Yellowstone the countrys first national park. More significantly, I contend that the landscape art of Watkins, Jackson, and Moran are not merely evidence in a conventional political argument. They are not simply representing reality or making an argument aboutShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Poem Wild Swans At Coole 1004 Words   |  5 Pagesthe increasingly complex form of his poetry which challenges existing perspectives on mortality as well as philosophy on beauty and art in order to find new ways of perceiving the world. In ‘Wild Swans at Coole’ (1919), Yeats urges his readers to discover the inevitability of mortality through the guidance of his personal questioning; transience of natural beauty and art also encompasses an aspect of his search for truth. ‘Among School Children’ (1928) is a continuation of Yeats’ searching process asRead More Comparing Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Our Time1278 Words   |  6 Pagesand minds of their audience.    The authors must bring middle class white readers as close to the slave plantation or the Ghetto or the prison cell as possible. For this reason, both authors refer to the reader with questions. This rhetorical device forces the reader to place herself in the situation of the main character. For example, when discussing the abuse she took from her master, Dr. flint, Jacobs asks, But where could I turn for protection?(477). Jacobs needs to make the reader understandRead MoreA Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful: Edmund Burke1299 Words   |  6 PagesBeautiful and Sublime†, provide important reflections on literature and nature. These contributions and distinctions have remained in force even after the systematization of aesthetic notions that are carried out in modern times. As it can be appreciated, the history of the sublime is as ancient as philosophy. But ultimately the art is which gives life to the sublime: an art that is manifested not only in the great works but also in the phenomena of the sensible world, as well as in the proposals andRead MoreComparison Between Roman And Roman Civilization1565 Words   |  7 Pagesintelligence something could’ve been devised to limit it basic. Its irresistible dwindling of knowledge and its mindset all played a role in the effects of it. During years in pre-roman Greek republics along with local dynasties Tyrants and kings Motivated Art, literature with Science to such a degree that Civilized world that thickly dotted over with intellectual centuries. Conquest diminishes a greater part in a Psychological life. Roman Government subdued in Demoralizing in barely survived. To absenceRead MoreAmusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman1180 Words   |  5 Pages Neil Postman writes, Amusing Ourselves to Death to address a television-based epistemology pollutes public communication and its surrounding landscape, not that it pollutes everything. The book was produced in 1984 in a time where television was an emerging epidemic and other forms of communication that today have taken flight, didn’t exist. It is directed to people who have let television drag them away from their Focus and attention to comprehend as they have lost the ability to bring forth yourRead MoreThe Artifacts Of The Past2785 Words   |  12 Page sBecause the history of art is, for the most part, a history of theft; questions over its ownership are bound to ensue. So, how do we decide who owns art, and subsequently, history? Prevailing postcolonial ideologies, might characterise museums as imperial despoilers in which their possession of artefacts showcase the dispossession of cultural identity from the colonised, robbing the motif behind acquired objects. This works in conjunction with the idea that when an ancient work of art is removed from itsRead MoreThe Marbles : British Museum Loan3096 Words   |  13 Pagesthe topic for my major project, I realised that returning art to its country of origin, is indeed a complex issue. I felt that it was natural for nations to desire aspects of their past and connections to their ancestors returned. However, some of these nations had either long neglected their culture or honestly did not possess proper resources to look after these objects if restored. However, after researching be neath the surface of art repatriation and looking at each object on a case to case basisRead MoreCritical Metaphor Analysis Approach7941 Words   |  32 PagesTO 1987 CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE IN BLACKPOOL V. CONCLUSION VI. REFERENCES VII. APPENDIX I I. ------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION Rhetoric is the art of persuading others. Persuation is an interactive communicative process in which a message sender aims to influence the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of the message receiver( cf. Jowettamp; O’Donnell 1992:21-26) Persuation involves exploitingRead MoreContemporary American Poetry and Its Public Worlds Essay8159 Words   |  33 Pagesinadequate because the poets face a world in which the very gesture of seeking private space seems heavily mediated by the forces of therapeutic culture and the fantasies proposed in various kinds of advertising. For poetry to achieve cultural currency, in both senses of that term, it may have to find ways of reconciling the energies of romantic lyricism to overtly rhetorical ambitions and strategies. It will take me a long time to get to those ambitions because I first have to clarify plausibleRead MoreEssay on Happiness and Drought2705 Words   |  11 Pagesconversational and lyrical narrative. In the first two lines we are given the stage in which the dead man’s story is to be told. â€Å"The earth keeps some vibration going There in your heart, and that is you.† (ll. 1-2) This portrayal of Earth as a natural force can be read in two ways. On one hand, the Earth can be viewed as a natural source that produces the life of a human. But one cannot ignore the fact that Masters deliberately placed the words your and you in these lines. With these words Masters sets