LibGuides: Native American Rhetorical Traditions: Visual Rhetoric

Definitions

In addition to words, people use images and pictures to influence others in many different ways. Deploying the persuasive capacity of visuals in a variety of formats and media, visual rhetoric involves how we choose to argue through images.

The range of visual rhetorical objects that affect us is impression - form memes, advertising, graffiti, data viz such as graphs, charts and infographics, book illustrations, patterns and motifs in needlework to large creations as maps, paintings, and films, sculpture and interior design.

General Starting Points

To size up the dimensions of visual rhetorical analysis, start by browsing a few collections of essays.

Below are select books that present an overview of objects, practices, and approaches to visual communication and visual persuasion.

Visual Rhetoric by Lester C. Olson (Editor); Cara A. Finnegan (Editor); Diane S. Hope (Editor)
Call Number: P93.5 .V568 2008 (at U of Kansas libraries)
ISBN: 9781412949194
Publication Date: 2008-03-20
This anthology contains 20 exemplary studies of visual rhetoric, exploring photographs, prints, television documentary, and film, stamps, advertisements, tattoos, and more. Five broad pairs of rhetorical action -- performing and seeing; remembering and memorializing; confronting and resisting; commodifying and consuming; governing and authorizing -- introduce readers to the ways visual images and artifacts become powerful tools of persuasion.
Rhetorics of Display by Lawrence J. Prelli (Editor)
Call Number: P93.5 .R49 2006 (at U of Kansas libraries)
ISBN: 9781570036194
Publication Date: 2006-05-01
The volume brings together adistinguished group of scholars to assess an increasingly pervasive form of rhetorical activity -- from the verbal images of speeches and literature to visual images of film and photography to exhibits in museums to the arrangement of our homes to the merchandising of consumer goods.
No Caption Needed by Robert Hariman; John Louis Lucaites
Call Number: E169.12 .H369 2007 (at U of Kansas libraries)
ISBN: 9780226316062
Publication Date: 2007-06-01
The authors provide the definitive study of the iconic photograph as a dynamic form of public art. They explore nine photographs and their subsequent circulation through a variety media, including stamps, posters, billboards, editorial cartoons, TV shows, Web pages, tattoos, and more. The analysis suggests that photojournalism plays a vital role in public life.
The Civil Contract of Photography by Ariella Azoulay; Rela Mazali (Translator); Ruvik Danieli (Translator)
Call Number: TR147 .A96 2008 (at U of Kansas libraries)
ISBN: 9781890951887
Publication Date: 2008-09-01
This work revises our understanding of the ethical status of photography. It argues that photoes are inseparable from the many catastrophes of recent history. The crucial arguments of the book concern two groups rendered invisible by their state of exception: the Palestinian noncitizens of Israel and women in Western societies.
Humanizing Visual Design by Charles Kostelnick
Call Number: EBOOK (at U of Kansas libraries)
ISBN: 9781138071513
Publication Date: 2019-04-03
The book explores the many rhetorical purposes that human forms play in functional pictures, including empowering readers, narrating processes, invoking social and cultural identities, fostering pathos appeals, and visualizing data.