1. Concept Formation & Visual Rhetoric
Adapted from Hanno H.J. Ehses
Design Discourse: University of Chicago
Persepolis

2. How do artists derive their creative concepts?
Read the subject matter
Derive overall psychological impact
Try to convey a understanding visually
J. Shadbolt, marketing designer, remarks “It’s easy to make an elegant decoration, but quite another thing to evoke exact implication.”

3. J. Shadbolt, marketing designer, remarks “It’s easy to make an elegant decoration, but quite another thing to evoke exact implication.”
The remark addresses some of the fundamental problems in design:
What do we see?
What meaning can we derive as a result of what we see?
How does the text/concept relate to the visual representation?
What is the “literary” nature of the relationship between the image and the text/concept in the visual design?

4. Of Mice and Men What do we see?
A large black rabbit with undefined edges as positive space
Two men that appear in the foreground in the negative space dressed casually. The smaller of the two men has a tool (shovel).

5. Of Mice and Men What meaning can we derive from the image?
The rabbit is the first thing we might see but given the context of the picture it later seems to be a shadow looming behind the men. It shows that the men are subject to what the rabbit symbolizes.

6. How is meaning created in the visual design as a result of textual knowledge?
The more we know about a subject matter, the more we are able to read an image. Our reading is influenced by our familiarity with the subject matter.
Main characters: George and Lennie
Symbolic Connections: Rabbit as symbol for the men’s American dream that is at once tangible yet intangible

7. What is the “literary” nature of the relationship between the image and the text/concept in the visual design?
Content/Form—Of Mice and Men, a novella by John Steinbeck
Expression?/Substance
Hyperbole—The image of the black rabbit is exaggerated and it becomes an ominous symbol of the Dream they men will fail to achieve.

8. Applying this to Persepolis
Graphic novels allow for a innovative approaches to understanding diction, imagery, syntax, structure, and language.
The images need to be understood as a language that needs interpretation.
Artists intentionally or unintentionally use their knowledge of literary and rhetorical figures to express supplementary interpretive value.

9. Figures of Contrast: Antithesis
a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else / a contrast or opposition between two things
What do we see?
What meaning can we derive as a result of what we see?
How does the text/concept relate to the visual representation?
Explain the visual antithesis.

10. Figures of Proximity: Metonymy
the substitution of terms suggesting an actual relationship that can be of causal, spatial, or chronological nature--The White House (President of the United States) reduced his troops in Europe.
What do we see?
What meaning can we derive as a result of what we see?
How does the text/concept relate to the visual representation?
Explain the visual metonymy.

11. Figures of Proximity: Synecdoche
What do we see?
What meaning can we derive as a result of what we see?
How does the text/concept relate to the visual representation?
Explain the visual synecdoche.
a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa

12. Figures of Proximity: Pun
What do we see?
What meaning can we derive as a result of what we see?
How does the text/concept relate to the visual representation?
Explain the visual pun.
Figures of Proximity: Pun
playful use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications

13. Figures of Graduation: Amplification
the expansion of a topic through collection of relevant particulars
What do we see?
What meaning can we derive as a result of what we see?
How does the text/concept relate to the visual representation?
Explain the visual amplification.

14. Figures of Graduation: Hyperbole
the exaggeration of an object beyond its natural and proper dimensions
What do we see?
What meaning can we derive as a result of what we see?
How does the text/concept relate to the visual representation?
Explain the visual hyperbole.

15. Lesson Reflection What did you learn about visual rhetoric?
In what practical ways can you apply your learning?
As you reread and annotate sections of Persepolis, look for more examples of Satrapi’s use of literary and rhetorical figures to express supplementary interpretive value.