Abstract: Visual rhetoric is the term used to describe the study of visual imagery within the discipline
of rhetoric. As a branch of knowledge, rhetoric dates back to classical Greece and is
concerned with the study of the use of symbols to communicate; in the most basic sense,
rhetoric is an ancient term for what now typically is called communication. Visual rhetoric
is a very new area of study within this centuries-old discipline. Not until 1970 was the first
formal call made to include visual images in the study of rhetoric, which until then had
been conceived exclusively as verbal discourse. In that year, at the National Conference
on Rhetoric, convened by the Speech Communication Association, a recommendation
produced by the conference participants called for an expansion of the study of rhetoric
“to include subjects which have not traditionally fallen within the critic’s purview; the
non-discursive as well as the discursive, the nonverbal as well as the verbal” (Sloan et al.,
1971, p. 221). The participants went on to suggest that a rhetorical perspective “may be
applied to any human act, process, product, or artifact” that “may formulate, sustain, or
modify attention, perceptions, attitudes, or behavior” (Sloan et al., 1971, p. 220).
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-12-13
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 80
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