English 680V: Visual Rhetoric in a Technological Age (Purdue)

How do we understand the frames of seeing as they are experienced? If we are limited, altered, given boundaries and metaphors by our language and culture that dictate what we see and how we see it, how would we know? Seeing around frames is a bit troublesome: they are frames, screens, rose colored glasses that we cannot remove without removing all other frames of reference. Considering these questions I am attempting to explore a region that is on the edge of our frames, and sometimes transcends various frames of reference (leaving the authors of the experience in a very difficult space of reporting); namely, the hallucination. My reasoning is that, if we examine those ways of seeing that are unsanctioned, odd, questionable, or unreal, we will be revealing some of the frames of reference that limit or control our vision. Beyond simply revealing various metaphors that control our vision (we are already aware of the frames that I will be exploring) I would like to explore why, what needs to be controlled, in regards to the vision or hallucination? In what ways do the various frames or approaches to understanding hallucination invite, reject, or ignore the experience of the author? What implications does this have on wider ways of seeing?  For example, through the fifties and sixties there coexisted a variety of competing frames in regards to the drug induced hallucination. The psychoanalysis frame, delving into the subconscious and what makes a medicalized crazy person, was gaining significant momentum. The scientific frame was attempting to explore the various chemical and brain properties, trying to understand how chemicals interact with the body. The government frame was focused on the control or loss of control of the population. Various academics were beginning to explore and reframe in terms of a “new” spirituality or mental r/evolution. The concept that the human animal was evolving mentally was a dominant thought frame from the 30’s to the 70’s. This evolution could be trigger through meditation, various eastern religions and spiritual gurus, and that this process could be hastened through the use of hallucinogens. In the Christian frame the drug induced experience was a false religious experience, in other religions drug induced visions are a common and highly valued process. As drugs moved into mass culture a complex merging of frames often occurred in order to explain, describe, and use a state that is often considered "outside of language."  I have attached my current working bibliography. This currently contains the major texts outside of our course reading that I will be using. Cheers!