Essay picture representation theory verbal visual

Identifying the problems inherent in the attempt to master visual representation with verbal discourse, Mitchell proposes instead to "picture theory.". He looks at the way pictures function in theories about culture, consciousness, and representation, and at theory itself as a form of picturing.

This book by one of America’s leading theorists of visual representation offers a rich account of the interplay between the visible and the readable across culture, from literature to visual art to the mass media. View Recent Awards page for more award winning books. You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores .

Read More What precisely, W. J. T. Mitchell asks, are pictures (and theories of pictures) doing now, in the late twentieth century, when the power of the visual is said to be greater than ever before, and the "pictorial turn" supplants the "linguistic turn" in the study of culture?

Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. In "Iconology," W. J. T. Mitchell asked what images are, how they differ from words, and why these questions have been such a source of contention for centuries.