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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.
List of contents
Introduction
Kresimir 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. Szönyi
4. Iconology as Cultural Symptomatology: Dinosaurs, Clones and the Golden Calf in Mitchell's Image Theory
Kresimir 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.
About the author
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).
Summary
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 W.J.T.Mitchell as one of the discipline's founders and most prominent figures.
