Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology [Paperback]

W. J. T. Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 1987 | ISBN-10: 0226532291 | ISBN-13: 978-0226532295 | Edition: Paperback Edition, 1987

"[Mitchell] undertakes to explore the nature of images by comparing them with words, or, more precisely, by looking at them from the viewpoint of verbal language. . . . The most lucid exposition of the subject I have ever read."—Rudolf Arnheim, Times Literary Supplement

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; Paperback Edition, 1987 edition (July 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226532291
• ISBN-13: 978-0226532295
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #474,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, thoughtful, lucid. A great place to start., February 21, 2009

By 

T. Porges (Washington DC, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology (Paperback)

Mitchell brings a kind of consensus approach within literary criticism to bear on the criticism of visual imagery; the criticism of an image as if it were a text. A lot of this has been done, without any discipline or care for consistency or clarity, by an army of post-structuralist French critics, with uneven results. Not that Agamben, Derrida and so on aren't quite worth reading, but I'd guess that reading them would be a lot more rewarding for someone who had read this little book first.

8 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Many words for a few ideas., January 27, 2003

By 

Shock Writer (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology (Paperback)

The introduction says "This is a book about the things people say about images". As a person who buys a lot of instructional books which I hope are insightful and succinct I found this overwritten. Someone liking miles of wordy literary type criticism might find it appealing.