ENGL6350: s Spring 2013. Thursday, 6:00-8:50 p.m. Classroom TBD Instructor: Office Number: Carlisle 623 Email Address: Office Hours: Professor Yuejiao Zhang yuejiao@uta.edu TR: 12:30-2:00 p.m. & by appointment Course Description In this analysis and production- intensive graduate seminar, students will learn to apply rhetoric to visual analysis and composition. We look at visuals not only as a form of art, but also as a means to communicate, to persuade, and to make meaning. Students will read key visual rhetoric texts and study visual creations to gain critical awareness of how visual codes operate in our daily communication. We will engage in discussions on the intersection of visual culture with theories of rhetoric, technical communication, and semiotics. We will examine various approaches to visual analysis. In addition to analysis and writing, we will apply the theoretical threads of visual rhetoric into creating our own visual articulations using different tools (e.g., Word, Photoshop, InDesign). Upon completion of this course, students should be able to: 1. Develop an understanding of the concepts and methods used to rhetorically analyze and interpret visual images and artifacts. 2. Demonstrate ability to engage in rhetorical analysis of visual images and artifacts. 3. Demonstrate an understanding of the rhetorical strategies employed in various primarily visual forms of communication including photography, visual art, advertising, and information graphics. Readings Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. Kress & van Leeuwen. Taylor & Francis, 2006. Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice, 4 th Edition. Foss. Waveland, 2008. Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. Mitchell. University of Chicago Press. 1994. Additional readings will be available in Library Research and on Blackboard. Assignments Weekly s 150 Showing Seeing Performance 100 Visual Articulation 1 150 Visual Articulation 2 150 Final Essay & Presentation 200 Methodology Demonstration 150 Participation (visual time, discussion) 100 1000 1
Attendance Policy: As your participation in discussion and other in- class activities is crucial to the success of this course, attendance is required. Excessive absences (defined as more than 2) during the semester will have a negative impact on your course grade. Excused absences must fall into one of two categories: sanctioned anticipated situations and documented emergency situations. Anticipated situations, (e.g., participating in an official university function, court attendance, religious observances, or military duty) must be submitted in writing at the beginning of the semester or one week prior to the anticipated absence. Emergency absences (e.g., student illness, injury or death of immediate family member) must be documented within one week following the emergency. Make- up work will be allowed only in situations where absences were excused. Drop Policy: Students may drop or swap (adding and dropping a class concurrently) classes through self- service in MyMav from the beginning of the registration period through the late registration period. After the late registration period, students must see their academic advisor to drop a class or withdraw. Undeclared students must see an advisor in the University Advising Center. Drops can continue through a point two- thirds of the way through the term or session. It is the student's responsibility to officially withdraw if they do not plan to attend after registering. Students will not be automatically dropped for non- attendance. Repayment of certain types of financial aid administered through the University may be required as the result of dropping classes or withdrawing. Contact the Financial Aid Office for more information. Americans with Disabilities Act: The University of Texas at Arlington is on record as being committed to both the spirit and letter of all federal equal opportunity legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). All instructors at UT Arlington are required by law to provide "reasonable accommodations" to students with disabilities, so as not to discriminate on the basis of that disability. Any student requiring an accommodation for this course must provide the instructor with official documentation in the form of a letter certified by the staff in the Office for Students with Disabilities, University Hall 102. Only those students who have officially documented a need for an accommodation will have their request honored. Information regarding diagnostic criteria and policies for obtaining disability- based academic accommodations can be found at www.uta.edu/disability or by calling the Office for Students with Disabilities at (817) 272-3364. Academic Integrity: It is the philosophy of The University of Texas at Arlington that academic dishonesty is a completely unacceptable mode of conduct and will not be tolerated in any form. All persons involved in academic dishonesty will be disciplined in accordance with University regulations and procedures. Discipline may include suspension or expulsion from the University. According to the UT System Regents Rule 50101, 2.2, "Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts." Electronic Communication Policy: The University of Texas at Arlington has adopted the University MavMail address as the sole official means of communication with students. All students are assigned a MavMail account. Students are responsible for checking their MavMail regularly. Information about activating and using MavMail is available at http://www.uta.edu/oit/email 2
Weekly Schedule for Readings and Assignments Wk Date/Topic In Class/Reading Assignments What s Due Jan. 17 1 Introduction Olson, Intellectual and Conceptual Resources for Visual Rhetoric: A Re- examination of Scholarship since 1950. Kenney, Building Visual Communication Theory by Borrowing from Rhetoric. Rice, Rhetoric s Mechanics: Retooling the Equipment of Writing Production. Jan. 24 Mitchell, The Pictorial Turn, in Picture Theory. Bring to class two Kress & van Leeuwen, Ch. 1 images, one of Kress & van Leeuwen, Ch. 2 & 3 narrative 2 Visual Culture representation and and The one of conceptual Pictorial Turn Visual Grammar: Narrative and Conceptual representation. Representations 3 4 Jan. 31 Visual Culture and The Pictorial Turn Feb. 7 Ways of Seeing Mitchell, Metapictures in Picture Theory. Mitchell, Ut Pictura Theoria: Abstract Painting and Language. in Picture Theory. Stroupe, Visualizing English: Recognizing the Hybrid Literacy of Visual and Verbal Authorship on the Web. Kress & van Leeuwen. Ch. 6 Visual Grammar: Composition Benjamin, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Berger, Ways of Seeing: the BBC Television Series. Sontag, The Heroism of Vision Showing Seeing Performance Showing Seeing Performance Barthes, Rhetoric of the Image. Arnheim, Pictures, Symbols, and Signs. in Visual Thinking. Feb. 14 (Library Reserve) 5 Kress & van Leeuwen. Ch. 4 Rhetoric of the Foss, Chapter 4 Image Visual Grammar: Representation and Interaction Rhetorical Criticism Demo: Cluster 6 Feb. 21 3
7 8 Rhetoric of the Image Feb. 28 Visual Argument Mar. 7 in Photography 9 Mar. 14 Spring Break 10 11 Mar. 21 in Photography Mar. 28 in Photography Helmers & Hill, Defining s, Introduction. In Defining s. (Library Reserve) Hill, The Psychology of Rhetorical Images. in Defining s. (Library Reserve) Hocks, Understanding in Digital Writing Environments. Foss, Chapter 5 Rhetorical Criticism Demo: Fantasy- Theme Technology Demo Birdsell & Groarke, Toward a Theory of Visual Argument. Blair, The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments. Finnegan, The Naturalistic Enthymeme and Visual Argument: Photographic Representation in the Skull Controversy. Foss, Chapter 6 Rhetorical Criticism Demo: Generic Technology Demo Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (Part 1). (Library Reserve) Sontag, "In Plato's Cave." Visual Articulation 1 Presentation Mitchell, The Photographic Essay: Four Case Studies, in Picture Theory. Dickson, Reading Maternity Materially: The Case of Demi Moore. In Rhetorical Bodies. (Library Reserve) DeLuca & Demo, Imaging Nature: Watkins, Yosemite, and the Birth of Environmentalism. Foss, Chapter 8 Rhetorical Criticism Demo: Metaphor Finnegan, Doing Rhetorical History of the Visual: The Photograph and the Archive. (Also available in Defining at the Library Reserve) Lancioni, The Rhetoric of the Frame Revisioning Archival Photographs in The Civil War." Foss, Chapter 11 [Recommended] Foss, Judy Chicago s The Dinner Party : Visual Articulation 1 Final Essay Proposal 4
12 13 14 15 Apr. 4 in Advertisement Apr. 11 Visualizing Information and Data Apr. 18 Visualizing Information and Data Apr. 25 Visual Icons Empowering Women s Voice in Visual Art. Rhetorical Criticism Demo: Generative Lambiase & Reichert, Promises, Promises: Exploring Erotic Rhetoric in Sexually Oriented Advertising. In Persuasive Imagery. (Library Reserve) Wiggin & Miller, Uncle Sam Wants You!: Exploring Verbal- Visual Juxtapositions in Television Advertising. In Persuasive Imagery. (Library Reserve) Phillips, Understanding Visual Metaphor in Advertising. In Persuasive Imagery. (Library Reserve) Foss, Chapter 10 Rhetorical Criticism Demo: Pentadic Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Chapter 1. (Library Reserve) Kostelnick, Melting- Pot Ideology, Modernist Aesthetics, and the Emergence of Graphical Conventions: The Statistical Atlases of the United States, 1874-1925. In Defining. (Library Reserve) Lupton & Miller, McPaper. Foss, A Rhetorical Schema for the Evaluation of Visual Imagery. Rhetorical Criticism Demo: Rhetorical Schema Dragga & Voss, "Cruel Pies: The Inhumanity of Technical Illustrations". Johnson, The Evolution of Illustrated Texts and Their Effect on Science: Examples from Early American State Geological Reports. Kostelnick, Visual Lanuage, Discourse Communities, and the Inherently Social Nature of Conventions in Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions. (Library Reserve) Peterson, The Rhetorical Criticism of Visual Elements: An Alternative to Foss s Schema. Rhetorical Criticism Demo: Alternative Schema Edwards, Echoes of Camelot: How Images Construct Cultural Memory Through Rhetorical Framing. In Defining. (Library Reserve) Visual Articulation 2 5
Hariman & Lucaites, Performing Civic Identity: The Iconic Photograph of the Flag Raising on Iwo Jima. Olson, Portraits in praise of a People: A Rhetorical Analysis of Norman Rockwell s Icons in Franklin D. Roosevelt s Four Freedoms Campaign. Visual Articulation 2 Presentation 16 May 2 Final Essay Presentation Final Essay 6