Personally, I would prefer to view the type of campaign ad that uses a positive form of iconic realism, which demonstrates that a candidate may actually have an innovative thought for positive action, presented in a creative and intelligent manner.
© Jeanne I. Lakatos, Ph.D.
Introduction:
- Dr. Jeanne Iris
- Current: Danbury, CT, United States
- Welcome! A few years ago, I discovered an application that artists employ in their works to bring cultural awareness to their audiences. Having discerned this semiotic theory that applies to literature, music, art, film, and the media, I have devoted the blog,Theory of Iconic Realism to explore this theory. The link to the publisher of my book is below. If you or your university would like a copy of this book for your library or if you would like to review it for a scholarly journal, please contact the Edwin Mellen Press at the link listed below. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Thank you for visiting. I hope you will find the information insightful. ~ Dr. Jeanne Iris
Announcements:
31 August, 2024
Political Media Campaigns and Iconic Realism
Personally, I would prefer to view the type of campaign ad that uses a positive form of iconic realism, which demonstrates that a candidate may actually have an innovative thought for positive action, presented in a creative and intelligent manner.
30 August, 2024
Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' and Iconic Realism
From my book:
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, characterization takes place within the parameters of a seventeenth century New England village. Yet, the message that Miller is sending to his audience parallels the political ramifications of the anti-communist hearings in the United States, when fear of communism heavily influenced the psychological landscape. He creates a series of events that illustrate iconic realism through his use of lighting, characterization and dialogue. As each member of the town accused of witchcraft is called to trial, the lighting and stage presence illuminates the audience to the author’s intention. Written in 1953, shortly after the anti-communist hearings, known as the House Committee on Un-American Activities,[1] each character could depict some facet of the House Committee’s representation, for actions by the House committee resembled those of the drama’s magistrates.
The setting of the play is a seventeenth century New England village, during a time when actual witch hunts did take place. Miller admits to changing a few names and facts regarding the characters, “This play is not history in the sense in which the word is used by the academic historian… However... the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest...chapters in human history.”[2] Thus, Miller chooses a tale of human interaction to demonstrate his sincere concern for the cultural future of the United States and humanity in general.
I wonder... Have some current politicians and media anchors read this play? Somehow, I think not.
29 August, 2024
The Great Escape movie and Iconic Realism
I was channel surfing the other day and landed on The Great Escape, a 1963 film directed by John Sturges. I couldn't help but notice that this film illustrates the semiotic theory of iconic realism in that the audience perceives icons of both freedom and constraint through the character representations of the Allied prisoners of WWII and the German gestapo.
As the film progresses with bucolic settings that also provide a perception of freedom, only to be constrained by the Nazi forces, the viewer becomes poignantly aware of freedom and its multiple forms of limitation. In the end, those characters who are still alive, question their need for physical freedom from the p.o.w. camp as they learn to appreciate their spiritual, intellectual, and emotional autonomy.
28 August, 2024
Sydney Owenson's "The Missionary" and Iconic Realism
To some readers of this narrative, Owenson may appear to be telling an adventurous romance in an exotic setting to entertain her aristocratic readers, and this may be partially true. However, her romantic novel illustrates much more, for iconic properties of parochial dynamism reside at the core of each character’s restrictive community. These properties include the intense need for the Missionary to convert non-Christians to Catholicism and the deep conviction of a Hindu’s integration of natural and spiritual beliefs. Furthermore, Owenson creates an unrestrictive, fertile setting, where the Catholic missionary represents dogmatic and imperious Britain and the Hindu priestess, faithful to her own belief and community, represents the fervent hope for freedom of faith found in Owenson’s Catholic Ireland.
Therefore, in her novel, The Missionary, Sydney Owenson illustrates the semiotic theory of iconic realism by representing two disparate icons, each placed within a realistic community, only to reveal a cultural reality that, without a truly spiritual connection, strict adherence to an intolerant dogma ultimately leads to the consequence of cultural cynicism.
27 August, 2024
Symphony at The Cloisters, New York City and Iconic Realism
26 August, 2024
Emily Dickinson and Iconic Realism
25 August, 2024
'Blind Girl at a Holy Well...' by Frederick W. Burton and Iconic Realism
Below is an excerpt from a paper I was beginning to present at a New England Regional Meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies. Unfortunately, I came down with the Noro virus and had to leave the conference suddenly and drive across the entire state of Connecticut… sick as a dog. Ugh! What a memory… Anyway, enjoy this excerpt that I never was able to present.
Blind Girl at a Holy Well - a Scene in the West of Ireland
Painting by Frederick William Burton
In Frederick William Burton's painting, Blind Girl at a Holy Well - a Scene in the West of Ireland, we could broaden our interpretation to consider who Burton was representing through this young, blind girl. Notice that the younger girl serves as her ‘eyes.’ Through the establishment of the iconic figure of a blind girl within the consciousness of the community, Burton places this icon in a new reality that the community does not usually accept as the normal setting for this iconic figure, gathering water at a well. This placement allows the artist to make a statement that brings awareness to the community’s consciousness of an aspect within its culture that may need some attention.
In the case of this Burton painting, the commonplace figures become associations of that communal aspect to which many members can relate on a personal level: hope, industriousness and innocence, all of which he creates in the necessary function of gathering water. In this case, the audience ‘sees’ the necessity for others to assist those, who are blinded, in the human act of quenching thirst, be that a physical, emotional, or political thirst.