Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture
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Special Issue-Visual Rhetoric (Spring 2001)
Guest Editors: David Blakesley, Purdue University
Collin Brooke, Old Dominion University
Managing Editors: Byron Hawk, James Madison University
Dave Rieder, University of Texas at Arlington
While a picture may be worth a thousand words, a word may be worth a
thousand pictures, too. How can this be? The problem posed by this
special issue of Enculturation is much like the one that W. J. T. Mitchell
envisioned for his own critical project years ago: "What is an image? How is
it different from a text? Why do these questions--and the answers to
them--make a difference, not only to our understanding of literature and the
arts, but to the whole fabric of human signification, and the ethical and
political cultures that are mediated by it?" ("The Last Formalist, or W. J.
T. Mitchell as Romantic Dinosaur," An Interview with Orrin N. C. Wang,
Romantic Circles Praxis Series,
http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/mitchell/interview/mitch-interview.html). We
believe that the problem now before us has become even more perplexing as
the text|image distinction collapses under the weight of not only the
theoretical scrutiny of people like Mitchell, Jean Baudrillard, and James
Elkins, among others, but also the dissemination of the word, the
interanimation of the image and the word in the life of the Internet, with
its phantastic mixture of permanence and change, seeing and seen, surface
and depth. Ours is a world in which to see is to be, and to be seen, or in
which believing is seeing.
As Kenneth Burke put it long ago, "A way of seeing is also a way of not
seeing--a focus on object A involves a neglect of object B." Words are ways
of seeing, of course, so our attempts to explain or reanimate our world
symbolically are ways of re-imagining the bases for identification,
division, and belief, which is why the rhetorical entails the visual at the
scene of contact, where our terminologies may foster blindness or insight,
love or war, truth or lies, being or nothingness. We thus hope that this
issue of Enculturation both helps us understand the ways in which the visual
functions rhetorically, as well as answer the broader question of how and
why the rhetorical turn has become so thoroughly visual.
We value the performative aspect of the visual, so we encourage visual
artists, photographers, poets, and graphic designers to focus their (and
our) attention on these issues or to submit potential interface designs. We
also encourage prospective authors and artists to capitalize on the
possibilities afforded by electronic publication, so verbal and visual
hypertexts, exhibitions, film, or other hybrid media are acceptable formats
for submission.
Inquiries and submissions should be directed to either of the two guest
editors: David Blakesley, Department of English, Purdue University, West
Lafayette, Indiana, 47909; email: blakesle@purdue.edu; fax: 765.494.3780;
phone: 765.494.3772; or Collin Brooke, Department of English, Old Dominion
University, Norfolk, Virginia, 23529; email: cbrooke@odu.edu; phone:
757.683.3982.
The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2000.
Enculturation is on the web at http://www.uta.edu/huma/enculturation/.
Possible Topics:
* the visual turn
* visual arts (painting, cinema, video, photography)
* the gaze
* surveillance, panopticon
* picture theories, iconologies (Mitchell)
* in/visibility (Hollow Man)
* aesthetics of dis/appearance
* design/writing
* transparency of evil
* interface criticism
* the "fourth wall"
* phantasms
* ekphrasis
* iconography
* optics
* visual semiotics
* society of the spectacle
* simulation and simulacra
* xerox culture/culture of the copy
* information visualization
* camera lucida/obscura
* re/presentation
* visual poetry/poetics
* formulations of the visual in rhetorical and critical theory
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David Blakesley
Director of Professional Writing
Department of English
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907
Email: blakesle@purdue.edu or
Phone: (765) 494-3772
Fax: (765) 494-3780
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