2024/05/22 by Ray Drainville, Jennifer Saul · 1 voice
Psychology · #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
paper · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192844118.013.4
openalex publication_date 2024/05/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Abstract The focus of the fast-growing philosophical literature on dogwhistles has been on linguistic dogwhistles. But there is a very important lacuna: the role of visual materials in dogwhistles, which is only glancingly touched on in the burgeoning dogwhistles literature. This chapter begins to rectify this oversight, with a detailed examination and taxonomy of the workings of visual dogwhistles, both on their own and as they interact with linguistic utterances. It shows that, like linguistic dogwhistles, visual dogwhistles may be categorized as Overt Code or Covert Effect and as intentional or unintentional. The discussion ranges from the history of art to modern political imagery and internet culture.