Visual Rhetoric

Performing Civic Identity

Hariman, R. And Lucaites, J. (2002). Performing civic identity: the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima. Quarterly Journal of Speech. (88:4). 363-92.

Central Claim:

The photograph of the soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima has had lasting effects on history, particularly in the United States.

Central Focus or Purpose for Criticism:

Rhetoricians have overlooked visual items, such as photographs in discussing discourse communities.

Arguments about the Text:

-Compared the photograph to DaVinci's "The Last Supper"

-Picture has been reproduced more than any other photograph

-it is considered "the" symbol for World War II

-Visual practice is important in creating a shared discourse community

-Other groups have appropriated the image to express ideas about freedom for their faction, including women and minorities.

-Iconic images can have more lasting impressions than words

the perfection of the photograph has doomed subsequent generations to seem lesser because they cannot live up to the generation which created the image

-- the doubling of the image that was created following the September 11 attacks by firefighters raising the flag at Ground Zero instantly made that image iconic as well

E. Key Terms and Definitions:

Civic identity

Social membership

Ethos

Civic Piety

Egalitarianism

Nationalism

Republicanism

Imaging Nature

A. Citation:

DeLuca, K. And Demo, a. (2000). Imaging nature: Watkins, Yosemite, and the birth of environmentalism.

B. Central Claim:

The popularity of landscape photography led directly to environmentalism.

C. Central Focus or Purpose for Criticism:

Images can have a greater impact than words when trying to create a rhetorical point.

D. Arguments About the Text:

-Yosemite was saved because Carleton Watkins took a picture of it

- Pictures create reality

-1864 Yosemite protection came from photographic evidence

- Pictures led to public support of the environment and natural landscapes

- the sublime is both wonderful and can feel horror as it creates fear such as in cliffs

- There are secular and religious joys which can come from the natural world.

- Watkins image is a rhetorical devise which uses political, cultural, commercial, and scientific dialogues

E. Key Terms and Definitions:

- nodal point

-sublime -- rhetorical force rather than philosophical idea; the wild in nature