Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Images and Their Ability to Negate

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Logic in Question

Part of the book series: Studies in Universal Logic ((SUL))

Abstract

Conceiving of the image’s capacity to negate may be considered to represent a major challenge for any theory of the visual domain; nevertheless, there is no tradition of research on the capacity of the image to negate what it represents. This papers aims at proposing an enunciative point of view of this issue, stating that the image, far from limiting itself to affirmatively assuming what it displays, can modulate the degrees by which it assumes what it represents.

Enunciative perspective will enable me to define the image as a non-irenic locus where the figures of enunciator and observer may compete with respect to visibility and knowledge through a conflict of perspectives. This will make me able to show that the image consists not only in presenting something to the eyes but that it can also argument, for example, by denying what it showcases. This approach will be put to the test of semiotic analysis of painting and photography.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    We are thinking, for example, of the way in which this question was presented in the works of [2, 32].

  2. 2.

    Rare exceptions are [6, 7, 14]. Regarding negation in images from an art historical perspective, see [10].

  3. 3.

    On the graduality of negation in verbal language, see [11].

  4. 4.

    See in this respect the notion of tensivity formulated by [35, 36].

  5. 5.

    Concerning the various levels of pertinence in analysis, see [21].

  6. 6.

    On plastic semiotics, see [24].

  7. 7.

    Concerning visual enunciation and its relations to rhetoric, see [15].

  8. 8.

    See in this respect [26, 28].

  9. 9.

    Bordron [6, 7]. For a confrontation between post-structuralist visual rhetoric and visual rhetoric from a cognitive and perceptual point of view, see [12, 13].

  10. 10.

    See [27].

  11. 11.

    This is also what has been highlighted in the context of the rhetoric of images. See [6, 25].

  12. 12.

    See [14, 16].

  13. 13.

    On delegate observers as cognitively and passionally modalizing the spectator, see [34].

  14. 14.

    See [1] and, namely, the last chapter, Photos en forme de ‘nous’. L’éclipse représentationnelle d’un couple.

  15. 15.

    This schema functions as a semiotic square through the relations of contradiction and conflict which can be read as both logical relations and relations of narrative transformation.

  16. 16.

    Regarding the portraits produced by this artist, see [5].

  17. 17.

    See, for example, The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia by Raphael (1514–1515, National Art Gallery of Bologna).

  18. 18.

    For instance, in Francis Bacon’s Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1953, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa.

  19. 19.

    Raphael, The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia, 1514–1515, National Art Gallery of Bologna.

  20. 20.

    The book by [33] analyzes metavisual devices such as windows, doors, curtains, mirrors, and geographical maps that may be seen in early modern paintings. Stoichita takes into consideration the flatness of the surface (geographical maps) as well as the use of framing so as to construct various types of depths—for example, with the use of curtains which produce a form of restricted, exclusive visibility (revelation/concealment). Stoichita studies an example, Las Meninas by Velázquez, which presents all kinds of surfaces that are more or less opaque, transparent, and reflective and which thereby establishes various types of relations with the enunciative deixis. All of these devices would have, according to Stoichita, the ability to found a reflection on pictorial language. In our view, they may be considered as enunciative devices which problematize the acts of production and of observation (act of focalization).

  21. 21.

    On the mirror as locus of the narcissism of Susanna and of the observer, see the sharp analysis by [19, pp. 98–104].

  22. 22.

    For reflections in art history regarding the ability of an image to define itself as concealed or as being not fully offered to the gaze of the observer, see [9].

References

  1. Basso Fossali, P., Dondero, M.G.: Sémiotique de la photographie. Pulim, Limoges (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Belting, H.: Das echte Bild. Bildfragen als Glaubensfragen. Beck, München (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Benveniste, E.: Problems in General Linguistics. University of Miami Press, Coral Gables (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bertrand, D.: L’extraction du sens: instances énonciatives et figuration de l’indicible. Versants 44–45, 317–329 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Beyaert-Geslin, A., Lloveria, V.: Une approche épisémiotique de la présence. Sur quelques portraits d’adolescents. VS Quaderni di studi semiotici 117, 95–102 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bordron, J.-F.: Rhétorique et économie des images. Protée 38/1, 27–40 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Bordron, J.-F.: Image et vérité. Essais sur les dimensions iconiques de la connaissance. Presses universitaires de Liège, Liège (2013)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  8. Bordron, J.-F.: L’énonciation en image : quelques points de repère. In: Colas-Blaise, M. Perrin, L., Tore, G.M. (eds.) L’énonciation aujourd’hui. Un concept clé des sciences du langage, pp. 227–239. Lambert-Lucas, Limoges (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bredekamp, H.: Image Acts. A Systematic Approach to Visual Age. De Gruyter, Berlin-Boston (2017)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  10. De Koninck, R.: Image du désir et désir de l’image. Ou comment l’image parvient-elle à se nier. Figura. http://oic.uqam.ca/fr/system/files/garde/1646/documents/cf191-12-dekoninck-image_du_desir.pdf (2008)

  11. Desclés, J.-P.: Différentes négations: langues naturelles et logiques. Actes Sémiotiques Website. http://epublications.unilim.fr/revues/as/5112 (2014). Accessed 26 July 2018

  12. Dondero, M.G.: Rhétorique des figures visuelles et argumentation par images dans le discours scientifique. Protée 31/1, 41–53 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Dondero, M.G.: Rhétorique des pratiques. Semen. http://semen.revues.org/9380 (2011). Accessed 12 March 2019

  14. Dondero, M.G.: Énonciation visuelle et négation en image: des arts aux sciences. Actes Sémiotiques Website. http://epublications.unilim.fr/revues/as/2578 (2012). Accessed 10 February 2018

  15. Dondero, M.G.: Rhétorique et énonciation visuelle. Visible 10, 9–31 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Dondero, M.G.: Les forces de la négation dans l’image. In: Acquarelli, L. (ed.) Au prisme du figural. Le sens des images entre forme et force, pp. 105–124. Presses universitaires de Rennes, Rennes (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Dondero, M.G. : The Language of Images. The Forms and the Forces. Springer, Dordrecht (2020)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  18. Eshraghi, I., et al.: Avoir 20 ans à Téhéran. Alternatives, Paris (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Fontanille, J.: Les espaces subjectifs. Introduction à la sémiotique de l’observateur. Hachette, Paris, (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Fontanille, J.: The Semiotics of Discourse. P. Lang, New-York (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Fontanille, J.: Pratiques sémiotiques. Presses universitaires de France, Paris (2008)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  22. Fontanille, J., Zilberberg, C.: Tension et signification. Mardaga, Liège (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Goodman, N.: Languages of Art. An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. Bobbs Merrill, London (1968)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Greimas, A.J.: Figurative Semiotics and the Semiotics of the Plastic Arts. New Literary History, 20/3, 627–649 (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Groupe μ.: Ironique et iconique. Poétique. Revue de théorie et d’analyse littéraires 36, 427–442 (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Groupe μ.: Traité du signe visuel. Pour une rhétorique de l’image. Seuil, Paris (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Kempf, R.: Kant. Essai pour introduire en philosophie le concept de grandeur négative. Vrin, Paris (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Klinkenberg, J.-M.: Un instrument au service de l’énonciation: l’index (Application au cas de la relation texte-image). In: Colas-Blaise, M., Perrin, L., Tore, G.M. (eds.) L’énonciation aujourd’hui. Un concept clé des sciences du langage, pp. 51–68. Lambert-Lucas, Limoges (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Marin, L.: De la représentation. Seuil, Paris (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Sartre, J.-P.: Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology. Routledge, London (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Shairi, R., Fontanille, J.: Approche sémiotique du regard photographique: deux empreintes de l’Iran contemporain. University of Limoges Website. http://www.unilim.fr/pages_perso/jacques.fontanille/articles_pdf/visuel/semiotiqueregarddanslesphotosorientales.pdf (2001). Accessed 10 October 2019

  32. Stoichita, V.: Visionary Experience in the Golden Age of Spanish Art. Reaktion Books, London (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Stoichita, V.: The Self-Aware Image: An Insight into Early Modern Metapainting. Harvey Miller, London (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Thürlemann, F.: Fonctions cognitives d’une figure de perspective picturale: à propos du Christ en raccourci de Mantegna. Le Bulletin 15, 37–47 (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Zilberberg, C.: Condition de la négation. Actes sémiotiques Website. http://epublications.unilim.fr/revues/as/2586 (2011). Accessed 29 July 2018

  36. Zilberberg, C.: La structure tensive. Suivi de Note sur la structure des paradigmes et de Sur la dualité de la poétique. Presses Universitaires de Liège, Liège (2012)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Fund for the Scientific Research/University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Maria Giulia Dondero

Authors
  1. Maria Giulia Dondero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Giulia Dondero .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Philosophy, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Jean-Yves Béziau

  2. Mathematics, Sorbonne University, Paris, France

    Jean-Pierre Desclés

  3. Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia

    Amirouche Moktefi

  4. Laboratory of Sciences and Techniques of Information, Communication and Knowledge, University of Western Brittany, Brest, France

    Anca Christine Pascu

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Dondero, M.G. (2022). Images and Their Ability to Negate. In: Béziau, JY., Desclés, JP., Moktefi, A., Pascu, A.C. (eds) Logic in Question. Studies in Universal Logic. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94452-0_17

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation