Visual Metaphors and Aesthetics

Michalle Gal’s Visual Metaphors and Aesthetics: A Formalist Theory of Metaphor is a major accomplishment. It takes seriously the imagistic, material, and imaginative dimensions of metaphor, and it shows that language use is shot through with painterly ambitions. This is a theory of metaphor by a philosopher of art for philosophers of art, and it is most welcome. * John Gibson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Louisville, USA * Human thinking is primordially tactile and visual, and on the visual level from the very beginning imbued with metaphors. On the linguistic level the ubiquity of metaphors of course meets the eye, but it is only when looking at their visual origins that an explanation of how they function can be given. Michalle Gal provides this explanation in an outstandingly informed and informative, creative and lucid way. A must read for anyone for whom the iconic turn is more than a metaphor. * Kristóf Nyíri, Professor of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary * Michalle Gal draws on recent developments in visual culture, and on the work of a number of under-appreciated thinkers—Arnheim, Aldrich, and Gombrich, among them—to offer a resourceful, spirited defense of an ambitious new theory of metaphor. Her rich book promises to unsettle widespread assumptions about metaphor as well as the history of philosophical aesthetics. * James Shelley, Professor of Philosophy, Auburn University, USA *