Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Reading Images provides the first systematic and comprehensive account of the grammar of visual design. Drawing on an enormous range of examples, Kress and van Leeunwen examine the ways in which images communicate meaning.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• 1 The Semiotic Landscape
• 2 Narrative Representations: Designing Social Action
• 3 Conceptual Representations: Designing Social Constructs
• 4 Representation and Interaction: Designing the Position of the Viewer
• 5 Morality: Designing Models of Reality
• 6 The Meaning of Composition
• 7 The Materiality of Meaning âÇô Surface and Inscriptio

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

These two welcome additions to the semiotic literature approach the subject from very different perspectives. Reading Images constructs a taxonomy of visual message formats. Visual displays such as advertisements and children's drawings are painstakingly dissected according to the manner in which they are arranged. The authors manage to distinguish 86 structural categories, which are realized according to 53 different "modes." This precision is both the strength and the weakness of the book. It is a strength in that the process of describing the distinctions between categories reveals layout itself to be a grammar; it is a weakness because the system becomes unwieldy under the cumulative weight of so many segmentations. Kress and Van Leeuven follow in the footsteps of such authors as Goran Sonesson, who are also interested in describing features of the visual sign and the nature of how arrangement conveys meaning. From the standpoint of psychology, the standard for this kind of treatment is Rudolf Arnheim's Art and Visual Perception (1954), which remains indispensable. Arnheim is easier to read than the present title, which is suitable at the specialist and graduate level. McHoul comes at semiotics from another direction completely. He argues that minute descriptions of grammar and visual layouts miss the target, and that what is needed is an explanation of how communities use signs effectively in day-to-day operation. McHoul's book is based on pragmatics. He defines a sign as a methodical activity that solves a particular sociological problem within a community of users. Given the chance, McHoul would criticize the approach taken in Reading Images as one that "totalizes" in its attempt to reach the taxonomy for all analysts. McHoul wants to do just the opposite: construct a view that allows a much more open range of interpretations. His is a far-reaching book, well argued, persuasively and provocatively written. His work fits into the discourse of poststructuralism and deconstruction. A real delight to read, McHoul's book should find a place in graduate and research collections, beside the works of Roland Barthes, Foucault, and Derrida. It should also be read in contrast to the work of such structural anthropologists as Clifford Geerz, Edward T. Hall, and Claude Levi-Straus. Both Reading Images and Semiotic Investigations are worth owning, but those who must choose one or the other should go with McHoul. S. Skaggs University of Louisville