The Interpretation of Pictures and the Documentary Method
Keywords:
documentary method, interpretation of pictures, iconology, sociology of knowledge, art history, semiotics, formal structure of pictures, comparative analysis
Abstract
The considerable progress in qualitative methods is directly connected with developments in the field of text-interpretation. On the basis of a thorough reconstruction of their formal structures texts are treated as autonomous domains of self-referential systems. Such a methodological status has been denied to pictures in empirical research in the field of social sciences up until now. The documentary method, based on Karl MANNHEIM's Sociology of Knowledge, opens up methodical access to pictures. Methodologies from art history (PANOFSKY, IMDAHL) can thus become relevant for empirical research in social sciences. Connections to semiotics (BARTHES, ECO) and philosophy (FOUCAULT) are worked out in their consequences for qualitative methods. Thus verbal contextual and pre-knowledge can be controlled methodically in the documentary interpretation of pictures. The reconstruction of formal structure of pictures becomes of central importance in analysis. All of this will be demonstrated by examples from research practice. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803267Downloads
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Published
2008-09-28
Section
Thematic Issue
Copyright (c) 2008 Ralf Bohnsack

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