Visual Rhetoric (summary)

Luba Lukova, Privacy, poster, 2008.
Rhetoric is the art or the discipline that deals with the use of discourse, either spoken, written or visual, in order to inform, persuade and motivate an audience. Claiming that “Rhetoric is a useful skill”, which “turns a weak man into a strong one”, Aristotle defines rhetoric as the power to observe the persuasiveness of which any particular matter admits (the skill to observe the persuasive aspects in any subject matter and to use them for argument).

Rhetoric deals with communicating an idea as effectively as possible.
The classical art of rhetoric involves five phases described as inventio (discovery of ideas), dispositio (arrangement of ideas), elocutio (stylistic treatment of the ideas), memoria (memorization) and pronunciatio (presenting the subject matter).

We will focus on the third stage –Elocutio, where the stylistic treatment and the shaping of the material are under consideration.
The stylistic treatments that are applied to increase the overall effectiveness of the expression are given the term: Figures of Speech (also referred as Rhetorical Figures).

FIGURES OF SPEECH:
Figures of speech are any artful deviations from the ordinary modes of speaking, writing, or visualization. As a means of departure from the ordinary ways of expressing an idea, they endow communication with strong dynamic tension.

The figures of speech are divided into two main categories: Schemes and Tropes.

Schemes involve deviation from the ordinary or expected pattern of words.

Tropes involve shifts in the general meaning of words, –a word is used in a way other than what is considered its literal or normal form.

Although rhetoric has developed as a method that deals fundamentally with the spoken and written language, rhetorical principles are applicable to visual language as well.
Gui Bonsiepe was first to analyze the relationship between visual/verbal rhetoric (1965). Bonsiepe essentially studied the advertisements and demonstrated that visual rhetoric is possible on the basis of verbal rhetoric.

FIGURES OF CONTRAST:
Irony: The use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning. E.g. Robbing the savings of a poor man is a noble act.
Waldemar Swierzy, Circus - poster, 1979


Antithesis: Placing contrasting terms of ideas together to emphasize their differences and give the effect of balance. E.g. A small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
Milton Glaser, Bach - concert poster.

Andrzej Pagowski, Hamlet, poster, 1987.





FIGURES OF SIMILARITY:
Metaphor: An implied comparison between two things of unlike nature that have yet something in common. E.g. Knowledge is an instrument for cutting.

Andrzej Pagowski, Hamlet, poster, 1985.

Luba Lukova, Health, poster, 2008.

Wieslaw Walkuski, Waiting for Godot, 1996.

Simile: When the comparison is explicit: E.g. Knowledge is like an instrument for cutting.

Personification: Comparison whereby human qualities are assigned to inanimate objects or to abstractions. E.g. The houses in the valley seemed to be a sleep.

John Gall, book cover, 2007.

Tomasz Boguslawski, Ubu King, 2004.

FIGURES OF CONTIGUITY:
Metonymy: The substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant. The thing what is really meant is represented by something closely associated with it.
E.g. Crown for royalty, pen for authors, gold for money, bottle for alcohol, ear for music.
“The White House supports the bill” (White House instead of the President).
Jerzy Czerniawski, Hamlet, 1975.

MichelBatory, Idiot, 1995.

Synecdoche: Part stands for the whole, or, the whole is used to refer to part of it; and thus something else is understood within the thing mentioned.
E.g. Bread for food, head for brain (‘use your head’), steel for sword, mouth for hungry people…
Paula Scher, Him.

Periphrasis: The indirect reference by means of well-known attributes or characteristics. Substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name.
E.g. He is a Pollyanna. / She has gone to a better world.


Pun: Play upon words, two or more meaning appear in one word or in two words of identical
or similar sound. E.g. There is a certain type of a woman who'd rather press grapes than clothes.




Tomasz Boguslawski, Titus Andronicus, 2007.

LubaLukova, calendar cover, 2006.

FIGURES OF GRADATION:
Amplification: The expansion of a topic through the assemblage of relevant particulars.
E.g. He went to see the world: the east, the west, north and the south.
David Pearson, book cover, 2007.


Hyperbole: The use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect, emphasized by saying more than what is really meant, or more than is literally true.
E.g. I could sleep for a year.

Understatement: It can be considered as the opposite of hyperbole. The situation is made to look less important or serious than it is. E.g. “It's just a flesh wound.” (Black Knight, after having both of his arms cut off, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail)



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List of References:
Ehses, Hanno H. "Representing Macbeth: A Case Study of Visual Rhetoric. Design Discourse. Victor Margolin (Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 187-197.

Behrens, Roy R. Illustration as an Art. Prentice Hall, 1986.