The Meaning of Images

As our textbook says, images have two levels of meaning: denotative and connotative meaning. It says that an image "connotes more culturally specific meanings" in addition to its denotative, "descriptive meaning." And the connotative meaning depends on "the cultural and historical context of the image and its viewers' lived, felt knowledge of those circumstances - all that the image means to them personally and socially." (Chapter 1, p19)
I find the chapter1 interesting because it points out that the images are interpreted differently to each person relying on the person's background. We might know that images are understood differently by the viewers, but I think when we see an image, we interpret it according to our own knowledge, background, beliefs, etc, but we are hardly aware that the same image can be interpreted in different ways by others. We see the image and interpret it and finish - we do not really think what others might view the same image. By showing us the idea of the two levels of meaning and the images with various interpretations, I think this chapter really opens up the door to "practice" how to look at and approach to an image to "decode" its meaning in different ways: how other people interpret it, not only how we or I view it.

I am taking a class of "Criticism of Postwar Japanese Literature" and in the class I found an interesting image in the article we did last class, which can be related to the idea of two levels of meaning.

This is pretty famous picture( I guess). I have actually seen it in my history textbook when I was in high school. The picture was taken after the end of WWII at the meeting of then presiding officer of the U.S. occupation, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
For me, this image represents the end of war and the historic moment of the meeting which was really important for the future of Japan. I didn't know (even though I am Japanese) that this image was once banned from being shown on media in Japan on the next day after the picture was taken because the Japanese government thought the image would border on blasphemy. But soon, the U.S. GHQ (General Headquarters) lifted the ban and the image got out on media in Japan, on newspapers and magazines in those days.What the Japanese nation at the time interpreted from the image was not merely what the image represented to me when I saw it for the first time. The image shows Douglas MacArthur and the Emperor stands next to each other: MacArthur seems relaxed, wearing no tie and putting his hands on his waist, whereas the Emperor looks pretty nervous, standing up straight to attention. For the Japanese who saw the image in those days, it was still the image of the historic event, but it also gave them a serious shock because the image destroyed the figure of the Emperor they idolized. The image from which people could interpret the Japan's weak, vulnerable position because of the gap between MacArthur and the Emperor's postures made the Japanese nation at that time fully and keenly realize its defeat and surrender.

Our textbook says, "Clearly, our interpretation of images often depends upon historical context and cultural knowledge we bring to them" (30). What this picture represented to me when I first saw it on the textbook was different from what it meant to those Japanese who actually experienced the end of the war. And of course, the interpretation the Japanese had might be also different from the one which the other people from different countries and cultures with different histories had. It might be difficult to have the exact same feeling and interpretation from an image as others have. I can not have the exact feeling as those who experienced the hard time of war felt from this picture. But, I can, at least, try to decode different meanings and interpretations that others might have from an image and try to understand them. This "practice" of looking might enable me to view images from different perspectives.



The image is from http://www1.toptower.ne.jp/~katumata/sub511.html