Iconography

anthropomorphic animals, animals which act and behave like humans. When Spiegelman was writing Maus in the late 1970s, there was a growing number of comics being written and published in underground newspapers. These comics would often use the iconography of traditional comics, such as anthropomorphic animals. While many of these underground comics used this for shock value, Spiegelman uses to help better convey the message of the story. In Maus, all of the Jews are portrayed as mice, while the…

The theme of Sexualization of women and girls has become so familiar that many individuals have turned a blind eye to the earnestness of this social transgression and often do not acknowledge the impact it has on our society. Sexualization can be viewed in two different perspectives, how individuals are sexualized through social media and advertisements and how we sexualize ourselves. Within the reading, Supersexualize Me!, by Rosalind Gill, it focuses on the alteration in media that strains…

From films about childhood dreams, to wizards, to evil spirits, the fantasy genre has taken audiences into worlds they never could have imagined. Fantasy genre films use creativity, magic, and unrealistic circumstances to take one’s mind beyond its limits. “Fantasy is a fluid genre that allows crossover with horror, science fiction, comedy, holiday films, and more” (Goodyknootz & Jacobs, 2014). The feature-length film “Big” starring Tom Hanks is a textbook example of a fantasy genre film. While…

Literary theory argues that the first literatures are based on epics which act as guidelines for future cultural development and expressions of each civilization’s unique vision of the world. Western literature however, exhibits an array of poems and literary works which together compose the baseline for literary evolution. Among these we count Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the most chivalric romances, set in the Arthurian universe, with a resounding impact on both old and modern…

Nüwa, also known as Nü Gua and Nü Kua, is an ancient and versatile deity primarily known for her creation of humans and repairing of the pillars of heaven. One connection between this primordial goddess and religion in China in general exists with the spelling of her name. When looking at other Chinese goddesses, there are many other instances where the deity’s name is prefixed with Nü. Exempli Gratia, Nü Ch’ou, Nü Pa (Drought Fury), Nü Chiao, [and] Nü-ying” are all examples, despite their…

Her perky alert nipples stand hard like two pink Bisoprolol pills. Her Kawaii shaped viridian eyes will end up staring at me with a concurrent void of intimacy and distance, when it's time to Man yoghurt on her phizog. Her Cupid- bow lips joined by ridges of a defined philtrum, which I'm intimately acquainted with by all measures of fellatio, although never shared a husband's peck that's systematically planted on a wife's ever increasing flabby cheek; when leaving for the good-old nine to five.…

still life vanitas: In the arts, vanitas is one of the symbolic work of art especially linked a still-life painting of a 17th-century Dutch genre containing symbols of death or change as a reminder of their inevitability, also it is connected with other places and periods. The word vanitas it is actually a Lation word means "vanity" and loosely translated agree to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. As applied to vanitas art, the word…

Religious Art of the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist traditions One of main characteristics of religious art that makes it different from other forms of modern art or contemporary art is the art is being used to convey some sort of religious concept with the intention instructing, reminding, and edifying. In the various statues of Ganeshia, son of Shiva the followers of the Hindu faith are instructed in the ways to overcome Mayan or the dream that they live in. Embedded in the statue are symbols to…

Rags to Riches: How the Rise of Graffiti Has Mimicked its Artists On Saturday Night Live in 1997, then-mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani declared “we’ve gotten [graffiti] off our subways, but there are still idiots out there trying to turn our streets into an eyesore! (McKay)” Now, almost twenty years later, an original piece of iconic street artist Banksy’s work sells for as much as $1.7 million (Randal). Each of Banksy’s most valued pieces was undervalued by hundreds of thousands of…

nudity. This is a complete opposite to the other individuals in the painting as they are all wearing clothes. The demonization of those religious figures was inherited from the Middle Age, where demons were often depicted naked and the traditional iconography of Olympian deities showed them either naked or draped. Thus it was thought that they both had an ability to lure and appeal people in believing in them. It is interesting to note that there seems to be a dichotomy between vice and…