IMAGERYPolitics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too

happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be. 

Marshall McLuhan

Imagery

◦The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas.

◦The use of expressive or evocative images in art, literature, or music.

◦A group or body of related images, as in a painting or poem.

Imagery

Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms: imagery, a rather vague critical term covering those uses of language

in a literary work that evoke sense‐impressions by literal or figurative reference to perceptible or ‘concrete’ objects, scenes, actions, or states, as distinct from the language of abstract argument or exposition. The imagery of a literary work thus comprises the set of images that it uses; these need not be mental ‘pictures’, but may appeal to senses other than sight. The term has often been applied particularly to the figurative language used in a work, especially to its metaphors and similes. Images suggesting further meanings and associations in ways that go beyond the fairly simple identifications of metaphor and simile are often called symbols. The critical emphasis on imagery in the mid‐20th century, both in New Criticism and in some influential studies of Shakespeare, tended to glorify the supposed concreteness of literary works by ignoring matters of structure, convention, and abstract argument: thus Shakespeare's plays were read as clusters or patterns of ‘thematic imagery’ according to the predominance of particular kinds of image (of animals, of disease, etc.), without reference to the action or to the dramatic meaning of characters' speeches. See also motif.

Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms: imagery, a rather vague critical term covering those uses of

language in a literary work that evoke sense‐impressions by literal or figurative reference to perceptible or ‘concrete’ objects, scenes, actions, or states, as distinct from the language of abstract argument or exposition. The imagery of a literary work thus comprises the set of images that it uses; these need not be mental ‘pictures’, but may appeal to senses other than sight. The term has often been applied particularly to the figurative language used in a work, especially to its metaphors and similes. Images suggesting further meanings and associations in ways that go beyond the fairly simple identifications of metaphor and simile are often called symbols. The critical emphasis on imagery in the mid‐20th century, both in New Criticism and in some influential studies of Shakespeare, tended to glorify the supposed concreteness of literary works by ignoring matters of structure, convention, and abstract argument: thus Shakespeare's plays were read as clusters or patterns of ‘thematic imagery’ according to the predominance of particular kinds of image (of animals, of disease, etc.), without reference to the action or to the dramatic meaning of characters' speeches. See also motif.

Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms: imagery, a rather vague critical term covering those uses of

language in a literary work that evoke sense‐impressions by literal or figurative reference to perceptible or ‘concrete’ objects, scenes, actions, or states, as distinct from the language of abstract argument or exposition. The imagery of a literary work thus comprises the set of images that it uses; these need not be mental ‘pictures’, but may appeal to senses other than sight. The term has often been applied particularly to the figurative language used in a work, especially to its metaphors and similes. Images suggesting further meanings and associations in ways that go beyond the fairly simple identifications of metaphor and simile are often called symbols. The critical emphasis on imagery in the mid‐20th century, both in New Criticism and in some influential studies of Shakespeare, tended to glorify the supposed concreteness of literary works by ignoring matters of structure, convention, and abstract argument: thus Shakespeare's plays were read as clusters or patterns of ‘thematic imagery’ according to the predominance of particular kinds of image (of animals, of disease, etc.), without reference to the action or to the dramatic meaning of characters' speeches. See also motif.

Sight

Sight

Sight as Imagery

Sight as imagery

Sound

Sound

Sound as Imagery

Taste

Taste as Imagery

Taste as Imagery

Taste as Imagery

Taste as Imagery

Taste as Imagery?

Touch

Touch as Imagery

Touch as Imagery

Touch as Imagery?

Touch?

Smell

Smell

Smell as Imagery

Smell as Imagery

Who were the masters of Imagery?

Poets of all generations of course, and then came…

The TranscendentalistsWho?

Transcendentalists

New Englanders mostly

Transcendentalists

New Englanders mostlyLove of nature

Transcendentalists

New Englanders mostlyLove of natureRebelling against industrialism

Transcendentalists

New Englanders mostlyLove of natureRebelling against industrialismFollowed the Age of Enlightenment

Transcendentalists

New Englanders mostlyLove of natureRebelling against industrialismFollowed the Age of EnlightenmentWell educated

Transcendentalists

New Englanders mostlyLove of natureRebelling against industrialismFollowed the Age of EnlightenmentWell educatedWell to do

Transcendentalists

New Englanders mostlyLove of natureRebelling against industrialismFollowed the Age of EnlightenmentWell educatedWell to doLooking for a “new” approach to religion

and spirituality

Transcendentalists

New Englanders mostlyLove of natureRebelling against industrialismFollowed the Age of EnlightenmentWell educatedWell to doLooking for a “new” approach to religion

and spiritualityJust before the (un)Civil War

Transcendentalists

New Englanders mostlyLove of natureRebelling against industrialismFollowed the Age of EnlightenmentWell educatedWell to doLooking for a “new” approach to religion and

spiritualityJust before the (un)Civil WarWanted to create a distinctively American style of

literature

Who were these guys?Glad you asked

Ralph Waldo EmersonLived 1803-1882

Most famous work: Nature, a collection of essays published anonymously at first.

Core Beliefs: individualism, non-conformity, harmony between man and nature

Proponent of abolitionSpoke out against cruelty to Native Americans

Believed in a “God Immanent” (God is in everything and God is everything.)

EmersonEmphasized the spiritual “inner self.”

Studied a variety of philosophers and spiritual guides, including Confucius, Plato, St. Augustine, Sir Francis Bacon, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

His work continues to influence writers, artists, philosophers, and contemporary culture.

Enough of EmersonHe’s everywhere!

Walt Whitman1819-1892

Self taught after becoming a printer’s apprentice.

Teacher in a one room schoolhouse from ages 17 to 24.

Became a journalist at 24

Used poetry to express his philosophies.

In 1855 he published Leaves of Grass, with 12 untitled poems.

WhitmanContinued to refine, edit, and add to the publication until 1882.

Worked in New Orleans in 1848 and became a key abolitionist upon his return to New York.

Worked with the wounded during the (un)Civil War and eventually worked for the Department of the Interior. He was fired when the Secretary of the Interior learned Whitman was the author of Leaves of Grass.

WhitmanWhitman never became wealthy, but worked until his death in 1892.

He cared for an invalid brother and widowed mother.

Lived simply.

Believed in the power of man, essential goodness, beauty and truth. He believed individuals deserved freedom to express themselves artistically because they are part of God.

He was one of the first to teach the divinity of man.

Whitman’s home

now then

Whitman sounds a little crazy

Is there anyone else?

Henry David ThoreauYou ain’t seen nothing yet.

Thoreau

1817-1862

Thoreau made nature his religion.

“…one of his first memories was of staying awake at night "looking through the stars to see if I could see God behind them." One might say he never stopped looking into nature for ultimate Truth.”

Thoreau

At 28, he decided to leave civilization and commune with Nature.

He moved to a small cabin on Walden Pond (Massachusetts), on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

He lived off the land (mostly) for over two years, and wrote his most famous work: Walden; or Life in the Woods.

Thoreau

His book didn’t sell at first, so for nine years he rewrote it while working as a surveyor and a pencil maker.

He became a lecturer as well, speaking mostly about his time at Walden.

He also lectured against slavery and for civil disobediences when the cause was just.

Thoreau

He died of tuberculosis at 44.

His work has never been out of print, and continues to be a standard course of study in disciplines far outside the literary world.

So now what do we do?There must be a catch

HOMEWORK

Read a selection from Whitman or Thoreau

Write an explanation/analysis of the written work

Create the image using photographs and photo manipulation

Prepare a presentation for the class on your literature and image

God will see that you do not want society…