Publisher's Synopsis
Many modern scholars view metaphor as the central trope of language, both in everyday, prosaic contexts as well as in literature and art. Visual art is metaphoric representation -- not merely literal representation -- with a language of its own comprised of literal and figurative elements. Delineating the structure of visual metaphor is a task being undertaken in many disciplines.
The articles collected here were first presented at a symposium on visual rhetoric which joined together as many viewpoints on visual metaphor from as many disciplines using as many approaches as possible. The papers cover a wide range of theoretical and historical ways of looking at and thinking about visual metaphor. Articles from writers in the humanities and social sciences examine examples found in art and literature of the past and present, whereas two articles presented by psychologists combine this mode of analysis with experimental results.
