Hybrid Hieroglyphs
I am interested in how hieroglyphs fit into the word/image dyad (specifically the one Mitchell writes of.) Are they a perfect union of the two? More word than image? More image than word? I think our first inclination would be that they are merely images, but this doesn’t seem sufficient to me.
I also want to explore a creative component relating to what might be considered some contemporary examples of hieroglyphs. Perhaps through emojis or dingbat fonts like Wingdings… I would like to create some sort of narrative or poem using the characters.
Preliminary Bibliography:
Gardiner, Alan H. Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs.2d ed., fully rev. London: Published on behalf of the Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, by Oxford University Press, 1950. Print.
Wilson, Penelope. Hieroglyphs: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Web. Very short introductions; Very short introductions.
Morley, Sylvanus Griswold. An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs.New York: Dover Publications, 1975. Print. Bulletin (Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology), 57.
As well as WJT Mitchell readings from class
I am intrigued by the idea of hieroglyphs and would love to see them from a new perspective. Jane and I just did a project on emojis and I feel like they are is a lot more to explore with them as they are the modern hieroglyphs. It would be cool to see them compared visually to Egyptian hieroglyphs (maybe just because that’s what the word makes me think of) and I definitely think going deeper into Mitchell is a good area to explore and something I would like to read!
Hi Samantha,
This sounds like an especially fun project idea because you will get to play around with language theory, so you’ll get a taste of sound, image, vision, psychology, and anthropology. My initial thought was that you should take a peek at the first Mitchell essay we read, in which he emphasizes the fact the word/image dyad can’t be binary when it comes to language. He gives us lots of reasons, but a big one is the fact that the sounds we associate with language are in our minds and often produced by us verbally, even if an image is technically silent or more “image-like.” I wonder, is that true for hieroglyphs? If we “read” them as images only and we see a lion in a hieroglyph, do we not simultaneously hear the word “lion” somewhere deep in our subconscious? In other news, Wingdings for life!!!
There are so many creative products this project could end up with–I hope you have lots of fun with it!
Hi Sam,
I never even considered doing something like this, so I find it very interesting. I would love to see what resources you find to help explain whether the hieroglyph is more word than image. Also, our discussion in class today about defining word and image pointed out some really clear distinctions between the two, and considering this in the context of hieroglyphs would get really interesting.
I think reading a creative piece in the language would be really cool. I don’t know a lot about the languages you suggested in your posts, but I can’t wait to see more!
Andrew