The Interplay of the Visual and the Verbal in Visual Poems

Abstract

[Abstract] The Interplay of the Visual and the Verbal in Visual Poems. Makiko Mizuno The relationship between visual information and verbal information has been an important issue in semiotic study since Roland Barthes (1964) described the relationship between the two in his analysis of the Spaghetti Poster. Advertisement was chosen as the subject of Barthes’ analysis because its construction has a clear signifié a priori — it should promote consumption — and it enables the structural analysis to be simple. The present study concerns the question of how the relationship between the visual and the verbal in works of art can be described. Whereas the verbal information in normal advertising material often acts as an anchor of the visual information, to identify the figure and to guide the interpretation (cf. Eco: 1972), the verbal information accompanying artworks sometimes fulfils more diverse functions. Studies in cognitive psychology (Millis: 2001, Leder: 2006) report that aesthetic perception is reinforced when a viewer succeeds in finding a metaphorical relationship between a visual element and its elaborative title. In my talk I will analyze works of visual poetry, which has a unique position in the history of art and literature in view of its intermediality. Visual poems serve as an interesting subject for study because their essence as works of artistic expression lies in the very interplay of visual and verbal information. Several examples of visual poetry are to be examined, especially some poems by Heinz Gappmayr, whose works consist not of representational figures (image cf. Pierce: 1931-58) but of visual configurations (diagram cf. Pierce)*. I will demonstrate how such visual information is combined with the verbal information to establish metaphorical relationships, while making reference to the theory of metaphor in cognitive linguistic research. (cf. Lakoff and Johnson: 1980, Fauconnier & Turner: 2002) *Examples of Works by Gappmayr are included in the attached file. Barthes, Roland (1964) Rhétorique de l’image. In: Communications 4, pp. 40-51. Eco, Umberto (1972) Einführung in die Semiotik. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Fauconnier, Gilles and Mark Turner (2002) The Way We Think. Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books. Joy, Annamma, John F. Sherry Jr. and Jonathan Deschenes (2008) Conceptual blending in advertising. Journal of Business Research. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.11.015. Hiraga, Masako K. (2005) Metaphor and Iconicity. A Cognitive Approach to Analysing Texts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Leder, Helmut, Claus-Christian Carbon and Ai-Leen Ripsas. (2006) Entitling art: Influence of title information on understanding and appreciation of paintings. Acta sychologica, 121(2), pp.176-198. Millis, Keith (2001) Making meaning brings pleasure: the influence of titles on aesthetic experiences. Emotion. 2001 Sep;1( 3): pp. 320-9. Mizuno, Makiko (2007) Nichi Ou No Gutaishi [concrete poetry in Europe and Japan]. Gengo Joho Kagaku, 6. Tokyo: The University of Tokyo, Institute for Language and Information Sciences of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. pp. 293-309. Peirce, Charles Sanders (1931-58) The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Eds. Charles artshorne, Paul Weiss. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.