Bachelard, Gasten.
The Poetics of Reverie
. Boston: Beacon, 1958.
The Poetics of Space
. Boston: Beacon, 1964.
Hermeneutics, or the theory of the meaning of symbols, began as an aspect of the study of how the Bible has meaning, and today explores literary metapher. There is no such discipline concerned with the philosophy of visual meaning. In the sad absence of a systematic visual hermeneutic, these philosophical ruminations, gratuitously oriented toward the visual, are helpful and evocative approaches toward a theory of visual metonomy—of how images in art have meaning.
Frankenstein, Alfred.
The World of Copley.
. New York: Time-Life, 1970.
Lots of color plates. Not necessary if one avails oneself of the willing and helpful people in the Yale University Department of Prints and Slides.
Gordon, Edward J. “On Teaching the Humanities,’’
English Journal
, Vol. 58, page 681 (1969).
The object of this methodolgy, the most lucid and useful education has yet produced, is simply to teach students to think. Widely applicable.
Pearce, John.
American Painting, 1516-1913
. New York: McGraw Hill, 1964.
Lots of color slides and a text that is full of Level Four connections.
Prown, Jules.
John Singleton Copley
. Cambridge: Harvard, 1966.
This is the authoritative Copley biography, rich with organized, accessible facts, slear with a vision of the structure of Copley’s life, and exemplary in the analysis of signal portraits in his development as a professional.
Ricoeur, Paul.
The Rule of Metaphor
. Toronto: U. of Toronto Press, 1975.
Multi-disciplinary studies of the creation of meaning in language that argue persuasively for the centrality of vitality in any hermeneutic, including, by implication, non-verbal as well as verbal language.
Whitehead, Alfred North.
Adventures of Ideas
. New York: MacMillian, 1933.
An important book for anyone interested in Truth, Beauty, Adventure and Peace. Sometimes the asides prove seminal.