W.J.T. Mitchell's Iconology: Rethinking Image, Text, and Ideology

W.J.T. Mitchell's seminal 1986 book 'Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology' has been published in French by Éditions les Prairies ordinaires. Mitchell, professor of literature and art history at the University of Chicago and editor of Critical Inquiry, challenges the boundary between verbal and visual media. He redefines iconology as the study of what is said about images and what images say, departing from Panofsky's iconology. Mitchell critiques semiology for subordinating images to language, arguing images are 'living' historical actors. The book traces Western thought on images from the 18th century to the late 20th century, examining theories by Nelson Goodman, Ernst Gombrich, Gotthold Lessing, Edmund Burke, and Karl Marx. Mitchell reveals a manichean struggle between image advocates and enemies, noting how theorists often harbor secret loyalties to their foes. He highlights Lessing's gender politics in 'Laocoön' and Burke's geopolitical sexualization of image versus discourse. The study culminates in a 'rhetoric of iconoclasm,' showing how Marx's ideology critique relies on iconoclastic metaphors. Mitchell concludes that ideology itself becomes a form of idolatry—'ideolatry.' The book offers a political psychology of icons, exploring iconophobia, iconophilia, and the fight between iconoclasm and idolatry.