KreSimir Purgar has assembled a striking collection of essays on Image Studies. I have not been able to stop reading them. They cover a huge range and represent intelligent and well informed opinions containing important topics of interest to all its students. Anyone interested in this relatively recent field of study will find access to some of its essential methods and theories.
This handbook brings together the most current and hotly debated topics in studies about images today. In the first part, the book gives readers an historical overview and basic diacronical explanation of the term image, including the ways it has been used in different periods throughout history. In the second part, the fundamental concepts that have to be mastered should one wish to enter into the emerging field of Image Studies are explained. In the third part, readers will find analysis of the most common subjects and topics pertaining to images. In the fourth part, the book explains how existing disciplines relate to Image Studies and how this new scholarly field may be constructed using both old and new approaches and insights. The fifth chapter is dedicated to contemporary thinkers and is the first time that theses of the most prominent scholars of Image Studies are critically analyzed and presented in one place.
1. Introduction: Between the Creation and Disintegration of Images; Kresimir Purgar.- 2. The Concept of the Image in the Old and New Testaments; Michael Shaw.- 3. Mimesis and Simulacrum in Aristotle and Plato; Nickolas Pappas.- 4. Iconoclastic Disputes in Byzantium; Konstantinos Giakoumis.- 5. Perspective, Space and Camera Obscura in the Renaissance; Ian Verstegen.- 6. Immanuel Kant and the Emancipation of the Image; Mojca Kuplen.- 7. Formalism and Kunstwissenschaft: The "How" of the Image; Andrea Pinotti.- 8. Aby Warburg and the Foundations of Image Studies; Steffen Haug & Johannes von Müller.- 9. Early Interactions of Static and Moving Images; Mirela Ramljak Purgar.- 10. Iconoclasm and Creation of the Avant-Garde; Nadja Gnamus.- 11. Planarity, Pictorial Space, and Abstraction; Jeffrey Strayer.- 12. The Postmodern Image; Luca Malavasi.- 13. Digital images and virtual worlds; Rebecca Haar.- 14. The Martian Image (On Earth); Ingrid Hoelzl and Remi Marie.- 15. Intentionality, Phantasy and Image Consciousness in Edmund Husserl; Claudio Rozzoni.- 16. Aura and Photography in Walter Benjamin; Diarmuid Costello.- 17. Image and the Illusion of Immanence in Jean-Paul Sartre; John Lechte.- 18. Trait, Identity, and the Gaze in Jacques Lacan; Andrei Gornykh.- 19. Symbolic Exchange and Simulation in Jean Baudrillard; Gary Genosko.- 20. Historicity of Observing and Vision in Jonathan Crary; Lukasz Zaremba.- 21. Visual Pleasure and the Male Gaze in Laura Mulvey; Patricia Stefanovic & Ana Gruic.- 22. Reality, Fiction and Make-Believe in Kendall Walton; Emanuele Arielli.- 23. The Technical Image in Vilém Flusser; Dario Vuger.- 24. Im/pulse to See in Rosalind Krauss; Filip Lipinski.- 25. The Power of and Response to Images in David Freedberg; Maxime Boidy.- 26. Ontological Dispute: What Is an Image?; Andrea Rabbito.- 27. Representation and the Scopic Regime of (Post)Cartesianism; Donal Moloney.- 28. The Iconic (In)Difference; Pietro Conte.- 29. Seeing-as, Seeing-in, Seeing-with: Looking Through Pictures; Emmanuel Alloa.- 30. Varieties of Transparency; John Kulvicki.- 31. Photographic Images in the Digital Era; Koray Degirmenci.- 32. Images and Invisibility; Øyvind Vågnes.- 33. How to make images real; Wolfram Pichler.- 34. Images and Ethics; Asbjørn Grønstad.- 35. The Beholder's Freedom. Critical Remarks on the "Will to See"; Mark Halawa-Sarholz.- 36. Surveillance and Manipulation vs. Networking and Sharing; Elio Ugenti.- 37. Mobile images; Gaby David.- 38. Phenomenology of the Image; Harri Mäcklin.- 39. Visual Semiotics; Angela Mengoni.- 40. Literary Iconology: Tropes and Typologies; Liliane Louvel.- 41. French Theory: Poststructuralism and Deconstruction; Iris Laner.- 42. Anglo-American Theory: Representation and Visual Activism; Andrea Pruchová Hruzová.-43. German Theory: Bildwissenschaft and the Iconic Turn; Zarko Paic.- 44. The Image and Neuroaesthetics; Matthew Rampley.- 45. Visual Sociology; Carolina Cambre.- 46. Images and Architecture; Vlad Ionescu, Maarten Van Den Driessche, Louis De Mey.- 47. What is Design Theory?; Oliver Ruf.- 48. W. J. T. Mitchell; Kresimir Purgar.- 49. Michele Cometa; Valeria Cammarata.- 50. Paul Crowther; Elena Fell.- 51. Hans Belting; Luca Vargiu.- 52. Dieter Mersch; Marcel Finke.- 53. Klaus Sachs-Hombach; Lukas R. A. Wilde.- 54. Horst Bredekamp; Yannis Hadjinicolaou.- 55. Lambert Wiesing; Yvonne Förster.- 56. Gottfried Boehm; Rahel Vilinger.- 57. Georges Didi-Huberman; Andrzej Lesniak.