Iconic Materials, Hermeneutics of Faith, and the Postmodern Reproduction of Public Democracies

Abstract

In this review of No Caption Needed, I argue that Robert Hariman and John Lucaites have provided us with a book that will surely become iconic, a text that explicates how a few evocative pictures can become iconic photographs that can impact the ways in which we think about liberal democracies. By extending the work of Paul Ricoeur on the hermeneutics of faith and the hermeneutics of suspicion, and treating their book as photograph itself, I explicate how this study of iconic photographs supplies readers with a nice blend of theoretical insight and prudential case studies. I contend that these authors provide too narrow a definition of what constitutes an “iconic” photograph, and I argue that their close reading of some images valorizes the role of the critic.

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Notes on contributors

Marouf Hasian

Marouf Hasian, Jr. is Professor of Communication at the University of Utah