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Master Narratives and the (Pictorial) Construction of Otherness : Anti-Semitic Images in the Third Reich and Beyond

Ranta, Michael LU (2017) In Contemporary Aesthetics 15.
Abstract
Collective identities of the Self (or Ego) vs. the Other are not only conveyed in and between cultures through verbal discourse but also through pictures. Such cultural constructions are often established and consolidated by storytelling, where, briefly put, events or situations are temporally ordered. Pictures and visual artworks may be powerful narrative resources for establishing and consolidating cultural stances and framing actions. In this paper, I shall focus upon demarcation efforts of Jews as the Other from the Middle Ages onwards, in the Third Reich’s iconography, and in modern, radicalized forms of anti-Semitic picturing in Arab media. Within overarching master stories staging a pseudo-historical struggle between various... (More)
Collective identities of the Self (or Ego) vs. the Other are not only conveyed in and between cultures through verbal discourse but also through pictures. Such cultural constructions are often established and consolidated by storytelling, where, briefly put, events or situations are temporally ordered. Pictures and visual artworks may be powerful narrative resources for establishing and consolidating cultural stances and framing actions. In this paper, I shall focus upon demarcation efforts of Jews as the Other from the Middle Ages onwards, in the Third Reich’s iconography, and in modern, radicalized forms of anti-Semitic picturing in Arab media. Within overarching master stories staging a pseudo-historical struggle between various protagonists and Jewish antagonists, considerable efforts have been made to produce pictorial narratives or gists in order to demarcate the Ego from the Other. A number of concrete pictorial examples will be presented from a narratological and cultural semiotic perspective. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Pictorial narrativity, master stories, anti-Semitism, cultural semiotics, Middle Ages, National Socialism, Islam, Arab world, cultural semiotics, stereotypes, caricatures
in
Contemporary Aesthetics
volume
15
publisher
Arnold Berleant
ISSN
1932-8478
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
51c8475a-a9a4-4db3-9cd8-034c74dc4a6d
alternative location
http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=765
date added to LUP
2016-09-09 12:38:57
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:25:45
@article{51c8475a-a9a4-4db3-9cd8-034c74dc4a6d,
  abstract     = {{Collective identities of the Self (or Ego) vs. the Other are not only conveyed in and between cultures through verbal discourse but also through pictures. Such cultural constructions are often established and consolidated by storytelling, where, briefly put, events or situations are temporally ordered. Pictures and visual artworks may be powerful narrative resources for establishing and consolidating cultural stances and framing actions. In this paper, I shall focus upon demarcation efforts of Jews as the Other from the Middle Ages onwards, in the Third Reich’s iconography, and in modern, radicalized forms of anti-Semitic picturing in Arab media. Within overarching master stories staging a pseudo-historical struggle between various protagonists and Jewish antagonists, considerable efforts have been made to produce pictorial narratives or gists in order to demarcate the Ego from the Other. A number of concrete pictorial examples will be presented from a narratological and cultural semiotic perspective.}},
  author       = {{Ranta, Michael}},
  issn         = {{1932-8478}},
  keywords     = {{Pictorial narrativity; master stories; anti-Semitism; cultural semiotics; Middle Ages; National Socialism; Islam; Arab world; cultural semiotics; stereotypes; caricatures}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  publisher    = {{Arnold Berleant}},
  series       = {{Contemporary Aesthetics}},
  title        = {{Master Narratives and the (Pictorial) Construction of Otherness : Anti-Semitic Images in the Third Reich and Beyond}},
  url          = {{http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=765}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}