Hieroglyphs
Are Hieroglyphs Words or Images?
I am studying Maya and Egyptian hieroglyphs because I want to discover their origins and find out whether or not they are more word or image in order to help my readers understand the word/image dyad. Additionally I plan to create a present day version of a hieroglyphic story using emojis that hopefully my peers can understand, suggesting the linguistic properties of emojis today. In this process I will read introductions to both Egyptian and Maya hieroglyphs as well as a general catalogue of decipherment of character texts (hieroglyphs, cuneiform, Aegean and Anatolian writing.) Through these texts I hope to gain a solid background understanding of the origin of hieroglyphs and what exactly they are meant to symbolize linguistically, which I would outline in my final paper. This research would also aid me in my personal decision about whether hieroglyphs lean more to one side of the word/image scale. After creating an understanding of the origin and purpose of hieroglyphs I will examine them using a WJT Mitchellian lense, using his theory and terms to classify hieroglyphs. There is not much other similar work being done in the particular area of classifying hieroglyphs as word or image, but other researchers in hieroglyphs have called them words made up of pictures, purely metaphorical, and images that are not art.
Bibliography
Davies, W. V. Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Berkeley: U of California, 1987. Print.
Depuydt, Leo. “Book Review: From Icon to Metaphor: Studies in the Semiotics of the Hieroglyphs.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 118.2 (1998): 289-290. Print.
Houston, Stephen D. Maya Glyphs. Berkeley: U of California, 1989. Print.
Mitchell, W.J.T., Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology. Chicago + London, The University of Chicago Press. 1986
Pope, Maurice. The Story of Decipherment: From Egyptian Hieroglyphic to Linear B. London: Thames & Hudson, 1975. Print
[ergh. I just wrote a long comment and clicked the tab closed. This is a recovery attempt, but it’s so much worse…]
I love the way you use the Craft of Research model to frame a clear topic and question of inquiry. The parameters are still broad though, e.g. “better understand the word/image dyad.” Hieroglyphics are a fascinating topic, but also broad. The language has (obviously) been around for a long time, which means that scholars have been studying and writing about it for centuries. Which means there will be mountains of material for you to come through. I worry that your critical essay might end up being a “research paper” where you try to compile a consensus of what other people have said.
I think you’ll have a lot more fun, and potentially learn more, writing a story in emojis and investigating their linguistic properties. For this part of the project, take a look at India and Jane’s wonderful partner project on emojis, which lays much of the groundwork for you. Also as a model, see my post about the Doge meme for the link to “A Linguist Analyzes the Rhetoric of Doge.” You might be able to offer a similarly witty, theoretically rich analysis of emojis.
So instead of taking on a massive survey of all hieroglyphs, why not gain a basic definition and generally agreed upon understanding of how they work, and use this information to see whether or not emojis can legitimately be called hieroglyphs? This could be the focus of the critical essay and your creative component would seek to show how they operate.
Given your interest in emojis, you may also be interested in Xu Bing’s book “From the Ground,” which is composed entirely in pictograms, aiming to be universally accessible: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/book-ground I have a copy of the book and the companion volume that chronicles the entire project. While the book is acclaimed enough to be published by MIT Press, I suspect a lot less has been written about it than about hieroglyphs. So you may want to consider doing a case study about this book (in which case you could conceivably become a world expert!) and then try writing a narrative geared to your own peers in pictograms? Stop by my office to see the books. Even if you don’t go this route, I suspect you’ll get some ideas from them.