UC Irvine

This dissertation investigates works which combine image and text and proposes methods of interpreting such works. Working off of W.J.T. Mitchell’s theory of imagetext, this dissertation concretizes his approach to imagetext by analyzing and interpreting hybrid works while paying attention to the visual and verbal process of building up the meaning of a work. In three case studies of building complexity, this dissertation examines the possibilities of interpretations that integrate visual and verbal elements by taking a phenomenological approach informed by the work of Wolfgang Iser. The first chapter examines Johann Caspar Lavater’s Physiognomische Fragmente, focusing on a passage in which the author attempts to make a physiognomic examination of Judas Iscariot, while contrasting that examination against a drawing of that figure. The second chapter focuses on the covers of Art Spiegelman’s Maus and draws out the ambiguities in the text based on those overlooked elements. Finally, the third chapter deals with Klaus Theweleit’s enigmatic Männerphantasien, which has an anti-hermeneutic ethos that makes interpretation difficult; the chapter therefore builds up a phenomenological approach to interpreting that work.