The Simplest of Signs: Victor Hugo and the Language of Images in France, 1850-1950Must we learn how to read pictures? Or are pictures viewed, and texts read? If both pictures and texts are read, what theory accounts both for this reading and the manifest differences that exist between the two sign systems? In response to such questions, Timothy Raser traces the evolution of simple signs from the Romantic moment to the recent past, showing how a desire for direct signification informs both canonical Romantic texts and the art-critical texts of subsequent generations. Employing semiotic analyses, he isolates the devices used by poetry, plays, novels, and art criticism to produce effects of immediacy. So doing, he describes the rhetoric of art criticism as it evolved over the nineteenth century in France. The tropes of this genre are particular to it - resurrection is a favored metaphor - and these tropes, when deconstructed, explain arguments, evaluations, and choices that saturate the field. Timothy Raser is a Professor of French at the University of Georgia. |
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Page 15
... tion , are obscure , mysterious , and inviting ; Joad's prophetic vision in Athalie , the only such figure in Racine's work , is an early example . By presupposing the reader's ability to decode such fig- ures without authorial ...
... tion , are obscure , mysterious , and inviting ; Joad's prophetic vision in Athalie , the only such figure in Racine's work , is an early example . By presupposing the reader's ability to decode such fig- ures without authorial ...
Page 71
... tion and might thus be ambiguous indicators of Hugo's attitudes on race ; let's look at something that is less equivocal . In 1859 , on the occasion of John Brown's failed raid on Harper's Ferry , Hugo wrote twice about the problem of ...
... tion and might thus be ambiguous indicators of Hugo's attitudes on race ; let's look at something that is less equivocal . In 1859 , on the occasion of John Brown's failed raid on Harper's Ferry , Hugo wrote twice about the problem of ...
Page 154
... tion , Dutch paintings are the combined work of memory and sensation . In this regard , Rembrandt , far from being the excep- tion among Dutch painters , is typical , the themes and subjects found in his works are representative of ...
... tion , Dutch paintings are the combined work of memory and sensation . In this regard , Rembrandt , far from being the excep- tion among Dutch painters , is typical , the themes and subjects found in his works are representative of ...
Contents
List of Illustrations | 7 |
Introduction | 13 |
Dates Words Names and Facts | 21 |
Copyright | |
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æsthetic allegory apostrophe argues argument art criticism art-critical artist author's translation autre Barthes Baudelaire 1965 Baudelaire's beautiful bien Bièvre Bug-Jargal c'est chose citation claim Claudel connotation Constantin Guys Contemplations course dates death Delacroix denotation Derrida describe discourse Dutch painting effect effet de réel essay Eugène Boudin example exile existence fait fiction figure Foucault France Frollo's Fromentin 1984 Gaudon Giuseppe Arcimboldo Guys Guys's Hernani Hugo's ideology images imagination implies jour Juliette l'homme language Leroux Les Contemplations Lucrèce Borgia Marie Tudor meaning ment metaphor n'est narrative Notre-Dame de Paris novel Olympio painter Peintre performative performative utterances Petrey poem poet poetry portrait prison Proust qu'elle qu'il Quatrevingt-treize question reader reading reference represent representation resurrection rien Roland Barthes Ruskin Ruy Blas Saint Salon Sartre Sartre's Saussure sculpture signified slaves story things Tintoretto tion tout Victor Hugo vie moderne word writing