Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence
Eyewitnessing evaluates the place of images among other kinds of historical evidence. By reviewing the many varieties of images by region, period and medium, and looking at the pragmatic uses of images (e.g. the Bayeux Tapestry, an engraving of a printing press, a reconstruction of a building), Peter Burke sheds light on our assumption that these practical uses are 'reflections' of specific historical meanings and influences. He also shows how this assumption can be problematic.

Traditional art historians have depended on two types of analysis when dealing with visual imagery: iconography and iconology. Burke describes and evaluates these approaches, concluding that they are insufficient. Focusing instead on the medium as message and on the social contexts and uses of images, he discusses both religious images and political ones, also looking at images in advertising and as commodities.

Ultimately, Burke's purpose is to show how iconographic and post-iconographic methods – psychoanalysis, semiotics, viewer response, deconstruction – are both useful and problematic to contemporary historians.
1117034039
Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence
Eyewitnessing evaluates the place of images among other kinds of historical evidence. By reviewing the many varieties of images by region, period and medium, and looking at the pragmatic uses of images (e.g. the Bayeux Tapestry, an engraving of a printing press, a reconstruction of a building), Peter Burke sheds light on our assumption that these practical uses are 'reflections' of specific historical meanings and influences. He also shows how this assumption can be problematic.

Traditional art historians have depended on two types of analysis when dealing with visual imagery: iconography and iconology. Burke describes and evaluates these approaches, concluding that they are insufficient. Focusing instead on the medium as message and on the social contexts and uses of images, he discusses both religious images and political ones, also looking at images in advertising and as commodities.

Ultimately, Burke's purpose is to show how iconographic and post-iconographic methods – psychoanalysis, semiotics, viewer response, deconstruction – are both useful and problematic to contemporary historians.
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Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence

Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence

by Peter Burke
Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence

Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence

by Peter Burke

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Overview

Eyewitnessing evaluates the place of images among other kinds of historical evidence. By reviewing the many varieties of images by region, period and medium, and looking at the pragmatic uses of images (e.g. the Bayeux Tapestry, an engraving of a printing press, a reconstruction of a building), Peter Burke sheds light on our assumption that these practical uses are 'reflections' of specific historical meanings and influences. He also shows how this assumption can be problematic.

Traditional art historians have depended on two types of analysis when dealing with visual imagery: iconography and iconology. Burke describes and evaluates these approaches, concluding that they are insufficient. Focusing instead on the medium as message and on the social contexts and uses of images, he discusses both religious images and political ones, also looking at images in advertising and as commodities.

Ultimately, Burke's purpose is to show how iconographic and post-iconographic methods – psychoanalysis, semiotics, viewer response, deconstruction – are both useful and problematic to contemporary historians.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781861898289
Publisher: Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date: 01/27/2006
Series: Picturing History
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 224
File size: 9 MB

About the Author

Peter Burke is professor of cultural history at the University of Cambridge, UK. His books include What is Cultural History? and Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition 6

Introduction: The Testimony of Images 11

1 Photographs and Portraits 25

2 Iconography and Iconology 41

3 The Sacred and the Supernatural 56

4 Power and Protest 72

5 Material Culture through Images 98

6 Views of Society 125

7 Stereotypes of Others 150

8 Visual Narratives 170

9 From Witness to Historian 192

10 Beyond Iconography? 207

11 The Cultural History of Images 218

References 235

Select Bibliography 255

Acknowledgements 268

Photographic Acknowledgements 269

Index 270

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