August Rodin's "The Kiss" and Iconic Realism

Photo of Rodin's The Kiss from Google Images

August Rodin’s The Kiss illustrates an iconic human act of a loving embrace. However, the two individuals do not touch. The significance of this is the key to understanding the iconic realism in this work of art. These two lovers emulate a common, human activity, yet this embrace, sculpted to express lack of physical contact, creates certain dissonance. 

The message from this careful configuration could be that humanity longs to embrace life fully, as an act of love; however, certain parameters prevent this occurrence. Other possible interpretations may involve a sense of distance. Regardless of the interpretation, this sculpture exemplifies iconic realism in that 1. there is an iconic structure, 2. placed in a realistic setting that does not conform to the accepting reality of intimacy. Through this juxtaposition, the artist illustrates 3a. cultural liberty, an innovation for the era in which it was sculpted or 3b. the gentle spirit that exists when true love is expressed freely.

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Rosie the Riveter and Iconic Realism

         

         photo from Google Images

From my book: The Theory of Iconic Realism: Understanding the Arts through a Cultural Context:

"Through the use of the semiotic theory of iconic realism, artists shape the consciousness of various aspects of culture, including education, history, business, and aesthetics whereby their works of art combine an iconic figure with a realistic setting that communicates an incompatibility with the accepted environment in which the audience commonly associates the iconic figure. Understanding the language presented through the art form, be it literary, visual, or aural, the audience may even respond with an emotional resistance, as it perceives the iconic representation in this new realistic setting." 

"Rosie the Riveter was an icon of the World War II era. The image of a pretty woman with her hair tied back, flexing her might, was completely out of place for the society’s image of a woman before 1941. However, this image provided inspiration to many women who were in need of money and who wanted to contribute to the war effort. The community was the female population of the United States of America during World War II. Her image continues to be an icon for feminine strength and perseverance through troubled times. Use of this icon as a source of feminine motivation is an example of the semiotic theory of iconic realism affecting the culture of a community" (Lakatos 81).

National Tales and Iconic Realism: Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) and James Joyce

 

Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) and James Joyce (photos from DuckDuckGo Images)

The Abstract for my paper, presented at the American Conference for Irish Studies, Boston, MA, 2019:  

Both Sydney Owenson and James Joyce illustrate my semiotic theory of iconic realism in their depictions of the strength of women from 1819 to 2025. Sydney Owenson’s unique methodology of creating romance out of stagnation in her national tales educates other women in their struggle for autonomy by bringing awareness of cultural disparity in the mid-nineteenth century. She motivates her readers to consider an innovative approach to the nineteenth century male and female dynamic by using specific rhetorical configurations to create discourse between her characters. 

Likewise, James Joyce illustrates parochial dissonance by means of Victorian feminine perceptions throughout Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in the final chapter of his epic tale, Ulysses. Using stream of consciousness, Joyce leads his audience to the entrance of the sphere of Molly’s mind, taking the reader to every crevice of her feminine consciousness, defying the social stigma of women during this era through Molly Bloom’s expression of unique feminine defiance of human weakness. 

Thus, Owenson’s national characters and Joyce’s Molly Bloom could be analogous to a linguistic duet that resonates with the harmonics of psychological and cultural discovery through the experience of historical dissonance. They place their iconic characterizations in situations that may have seemed outrageous to their first readers, ah, but not to the twenty-first century’s enlightened consciousness. 

A Brief Introduction of Semiotics, Linguistic Association, and Historicity

Photo of East Lake, Danbury, Connecticut

From my book: The Theory of Iconic Realism, pp. 15-16:

The study of semiotics unravels the mystery behind symbolism associated with memory, language variations, and sign-signifier correlation as the human mind associates ideas with specific representations. Syntax deals with language as an expression of contextual, modal and residual elements of language, as well as a clear understanding of themes and rhemes. A thorough study of semantics observes ideational, interpersonal and textual components of language. Finally, pragmatics analyzes format of the communication base, interpreters of a language and function of that language in a community. Therefore, a comprehensive study of semiotics enables an audience to experience the intricacies of language in association with textual, musical, or artistic expression.  

Linguistic association begins with the historical perspective of a community revealed through a collective memory base, the societal and political history of a particular language. This includes the beliefs that accompany the historical development of a language. If there is any variation of a standard, sociolinguists consider this a ‘dialect’ of the language.  In other words, the varieties of the language associate with the historical and ethnic identities of those individuals within the speech community. 

Historicity employs the use of historical arguments in the form of validated facts, reinterpretations, inventions, or myth to support the authenticity and legitimate formation of the language variety’s autonomy as established through history. One's culture, including language, music, art, faith, and traditions all incorporate to form the historicity. 

Iconic Realism in Three Different Centuries of Art: 13th, 16th, and 20th

13th century: depiction of Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose (photo from Google Images)

 16th century: Pieter Breughel's painting, The Fall of Icarus (photo from Google Images)

20th century: Salvador Dali's Rose (photo from Google Images)

The above paintings, from top to bottom: an illustration from the medieval poem, Roman de la Rose, Breughel's Fall of Icarus and Dali's Rose, are examples of artistic renderings of this theory. The function of semiotic representation is the reflection of the society in which both the artist and the audience reside. However, the artistic rendering does not necessarily reflect the standard of that community, for the intention of the artist may well be to create a piece that jolts the audience into a need for cultural change. This would be the reason for an artist employing the use of iconic realism, assisting the audience to become adroitly aware of that aspect of the culture with which they are familiar and its need for transformation.

In Jean de Meun's epylion, Roman de la Rose, a young man is attracted to a 'rose' representing a young woman. The iconic image is the rose, living in a guarded tower. This rose becomes the object of the young man's desire and purpose, but not until he first receives much advice from wise allegorical characters on how to win her heart. The realistic environment in which this wild rose lives illustrates that creating a fortress around those natural impulses only causes the impulse within one's heart to become more instinctively determined.  

In Pieter Breughel's painting, The Fall of Icarus, the spirit of rebellion reveals young Icarus, falling into the sea while the local community turns their attention away from his plight. Here, the self-absorbed society's rejection of the obvious need illustrates a necessity for humanity to attend to others' frailties when they are obviously seeking genuine help. 

Rose by Salvador Dali illustrates an iconic image of a rose, suspended in mid-air above an arid landscape. A small, barely visible and iconic young couple, hold hands amid this arid landscape. This positioning demonstrates that the outer revelation of love can occasionally become even greater, more lovely than those experiencing this emotion could imagine. 

Iconic Realism and Cultural Hybridism: Sydney Owenson, Imre Madach, and Arthur Griffith:

  


Below is an abstract from my paper presented at the New England Conference for Irish Studies Regional Meeting, held at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA: 

Sydney Owenson's and Imre Madach’s use of iconic realism in their writings explore cultural hybridism in nineteenth century Ireland and Hungary. In her 1840 book, Woman and Her Master, Sydney Owenson makes the following observation: 

Society has become complicated more rapidly than philosophy and legislation can follow; the actions of man upon man, and those of the species upon nature, have multiplied faster than observation can co-ordinate, or reason control; until a positive advance has assumed the appearance of a relative retrogradation. (WHM, p. 15)

Through her national tales, Owenson presents characters entwined with Irish political history, that illustrate strength in cultural identity. 

Likewise, Imre Madach, the nineteenth century Hungarian poet-playwright, questions societal expectations in his dramatic representation, The Tragedy of Man. Madach moves his audience through a journey of social outcry against parochialism in his depictions of Adam, Eve and Lucifer, entangled in episodic adventures that transcend historical boundaries through radical, textual dissent against the provincial establishment.  Madach deliberately places Adam and Eve in opposition to Lucifer to illustrate that by confronting distraction and authority, one engages in a journey of self worth by gaining key elements of self-knowledge.

In his 1918 book, The Resurrection of Hungary, Arthur Griffith writes, “Ireland’s heroic and long-enduring resistances to the destruction of her independent nationality were themes the writers of Young Hungary dwelt upon to enkindle and make resolute the Magyar people” (xxiv). Griffith’s association of Ireland and Hungary illustrates that writers, such as Madach and Owenson, living within the parochial constraints of both of these countries, use the power of the dissonant pen to motivate their readers to understand cultural hybridism and consider positive cultural transformation.

Margaret Mitchell's Scarlet O'Hara and Iconic Realism (Click here to view a clip from the film, Gone with the Wind.)

Photo from Google Images

"As God is my witness, they're not going to lick me. 

I'll never be hungry again, nor any of my folks..."

Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Gone with the Wind, beautifully illustrates the semiotic theory of iconic realism. She places a gentle young woman, raised on a southern plantation, in the midst of the American Civil War (or War of Northern Aggression, as they say south of the Mason-Dixon Line). Through this juxtaposition, Mitchell makes her audience aware of the need for perseverance to maintain one's dignity, personally and culturally.

In the scene above, Scarlet emerges from Tara, fatigued and tattered like a wilted magnolia blossom, but she slowly elevates herself as the horizon brightens. Her spirit breathes life back into this flower as a nation learns to cultivate the quality of innovation.

This novel was published in 1936, during the midst of the Great Depression when millions of Americans needed the kind of determination that the character, Scarlet O'Hara, exhibited. In addition, the interaction between the various characters throughout this novel illustrates a need for cultural reform on many levels.