Cultural Icons: A Case Study Analysis of their Formation and Reception by Mike Parker A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire February 2012 Student Declaration Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been a registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution ___________________________________________________________________________ Material submitted for another award I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work __________________________________________________________________________ Signature of Candidate: Mike Parker. Type of Award: Doctor of Philosophy School: School of Education & Social Science Abstract This thesis addresses the contested and poorly defined subject area of cultural iconicity. Careful consideration of three specific uses of the term - in the popular media, as a new way of articulating national identity, and in academic publications - reveals the extent to which the term is currently poorly comprehended and misapplied. The research proposes the introduction of tighter defining parameters to cultural iconography and presents an original definition against existing work in the field.
The main aim, therefore, is straightforward; to attempt to answer the general question, what are cultural icons? To meet this end a definition of iconicity will be proposed consisting of four inter-connected conditions comprising, a) distinctness of image, b) durability of image, c) reproducibility of image and d) the tragic-dramatic narrative inherent in the image. The decision to implement such a definition is supported by a range of theoretical influences, from the ideas on perception developed by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, to recent work on the dramatic impact of tele-visual images. The philosophical influence applies the idea that human perception is strongly drawn towards tragic-dramatic forms - the tragic-dramatic narrative of cultural icons being an essential component of the definition - while new research into how images impact on common memory supports this application. The method adopted attacks the central question in three ways.
Firstly, by applying throughout the work an original and practical working definition of cultural iconicity. Secondly, by differentiating the properties of primary cultural icons from other important cultural symbols (as in, for example, comparing cultural icons to photographic iconography and non-image based cultural myths). Third, a series of in- depth case studies applying the definition to real examples, which will be the crux of the project and, if successful, may prove not only an original contribution to knowledge in 2|Par ker this new and exciting area of research, but should also appeal to a wider, non-academic readership. 3|Par ker Table of contents Contents Abstract.
8 Personal Note to the Introduction. 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: WHAT ARE CULTURAL ICONS?. 12 CHAPTER 2 HOW THE TERM IS USED .1 Use of the Term in the Popular Media. 68 CHAPTER 3 THE TRAGIC-DRAMATIC NARRATIVE .5 Photographs: Cultural Icons?.
85 CHAPTER 4 REBEL MYTH AND CULTURAL ICON: JESSE JAMES AND JAMES DEAN .4 The Kansas City Times. 117 CHAPTER 5 THE SPITFIRE AIRCRAFT. 157 CHAPTER 6 DAVID GARRICK AND THE BEATLES .5 “One, Two, Three, Four!”. 202 CHAPTER 7 THE RETROSPECTIVE ICONICITY OF CHE GUEVARA .2 The Guevara Myth .5 The Complete Icon .6 Significance and the Guevara Icon .7 Revolution or Evolution? .8 Anti-American Sentiment.
241 Endnotes and Works Cited. 251 Table of figures Figure 1: Nelson Mandela (Chris Harris). 55 Figure 2: The pop singer Madonna with adopted Malawian boy David in 2006. 60 Figure 3: James Dean: Bravo Magazine Front Cover 16 May 1959.
76 Figure 4: Illustration of the Sinking of the White Star liner Titanic. 84 Figure 5: Migrant Mother (Dorothea Lange March 1936). 86 Figure 6: Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima (Joe Rosenthal February 1945). 86 Figure 7: Raising the Flag at Ground Zero (Thomas E Franklin September 2001).
86 Figure 8: Times Square Kiss (Alfred Eisenstaedt August 1945). 86 Figure 9: Man With Shopping Bags: Tiananmen Square 1989. 87 Figure 10: Accidental Napalm (Hung Cong Ut 1972). 87 Figure 11: Hindenburg Disaster May 1937.
87 Figure 12: Challenger Explosion May 1986. 87 5|Par ker Figure 13: Photograph of Jesse James shortly after his murder. 100 Figure 14: One of many depictions of Jesse James in the ‘Dime Novels’ of the period. 112 Figure 15: Ned Kelly?.
115 Figure 16: Ned Kelly. 116 Figure 17: Cole Younger shortly after his capture. 117 Figure 18: The Beatles Trademark. 127 Figure 19: Apple Inc.
127 Figure 20: John Lennon and Yoko Ono from the ‘Think Different’ advertising campaign. 129 Figure 21: Mohammed Ali from the same campaign. 130 Figure 22: Apple Computers campaign logo 1995-2000. 130 Figure 23: Three Second World War British propaganda posters.
135 Figure 24: Period Battle of Britain poster. 139 Figure 25: Supermarine Spitfire. 146 Figure 26: Aircraft numbers during the Battle of Britain. Accessed 7 June 2009, nationalarchives.
148 Figure 27: Boulton Defiant. 150 Figure 28: Hawker Hurricane. 150 Figure 29: Period ‘Spitfire Fund’ poster. 153 Figure 30: Advertising poster from the American version of The First of the Few.
158 Figure 31: Poster advertising David Garrick's first performance. 171 Figure 32: Garrick as Richard 111. 171 Figure 33: The Beatles 1961. 185 Figure 34: The Beatles, November 1962.
190 Figure 35: Statue of Eleanor Rigby sculpted by Tommy Steele, erected in Liverpool 1982. 199 Figure 36: The Beatles postage stamps issued 9 January 2007. 202 Figure 37: Still from Soy Cuba with the character Mariano. 208 Figure 38: Guevara's Speech to the UN 1964.
211 Figure 39: Fidel Castro entering Havana 1959. 217 Figure 40: Steel facsimile of the Guevara icon in Cuba. 219 6|Par ker Figure 41: The Vote Changes Nothing, The Struggle Continues. 223 Figure 42: Borders=Repression.
223 Figure 43: Power to the People. 223 Figure 44: Free Information (Vallen 2001). 224 Figure 45: de-Beauvoir, Sartre and Guevara. 226 Figure 46: Guevara Tattoo on the boxer Mike Tyson.
235 Figure 47: Sandinista Labour Union utilising Guevara’s image. 235 Figure 48: Carlos Santana. 240 Tables Table 1: Combined references to iconic individuals. 39 Table 2: Non-human iconic references sourced as Table.
40 7|Par ker Acknowledgments Returning to formal academic study many years after completing my Masters degree, I quickly became aware of how much I had to catch up on especially as, in over a decade, I had not placed pen to paper in any serious sense. Presenting ideas that can be peer-assessed is not an easy task, yet is an obvious requirement at the level of study that I have undertaken, and I owe gratitude to the patience shown to me throughout my research by my supervisory team Paul Humble (retired), Will Kaufman, and, especially, Brian Rosebury. In addition I was greatly assisted by the provision of research modules at the University which enabled a gradual yet progressive establishment of contemporary research skills. Thanks must also be given to my wife Carol who has provided me with encouragement, support, technical help, and wise words at the times I needed it.
Thanks also to Steven Hoskinson, for listening, discussing, and intelligently appraising my ideas. 8|Par ker Personal Note to the Introduction The World as Will and Representation by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), in my understanding of it, contains two propositions regarding the nature of human thought and existence. The first is that human knowledge is conditioned by our unique, human perceptual apparatus, and that this comes not in the form of a ‘blank canvas’, but with a very effective Kantian software program - space, time, and causality - allowing all of us to order the information that floods our senses from the beginning of life. The second is that, although knowledge of a physical/empirical ‘reality’ is always subject to human perspective, there is a non- phenomenal - a noumenal - presence outside of our knowledge that can never be properly known or even adequately described but can, possibly, be felt just through simply being.
At around the time I was becoming familiar with Schopenhauer’s philosophy I was to trying to make sense of what, at face value, seemed a very straightforward question, the one that became central to the following academic thesis; what is a cultural icon? Ask people the question - which I have done countless times during the research - and the response generally presents some good, and some not so good examples, but what measure exists to evaluate such opinions? Initial research revealed that, although the term was profligately utilised in the popular media, and often used without formal definition in academic publications, and even promoted strongly in a government- sponsored project, there was no firm basis available to assess the viability of the respective iconic candidates. There was, however, a pattern of responses, together with some implicit assumptions, that confirmed the idea that there are a number of individuals (and some objects and buildings) that are regularly described as cultural icons, the ones, for instance, that seem to be ever-present in collective memory such as, for example, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Lady Diana Spencer, Marilyn Monroe and 9|Par ker Che Guevara. Putting the Schopenhauerian influence to use as a means to inform an analysis of this intriguing problem seemed to help in the following ways. Schopenhauer presents the idea that all human knowledge must have ascertainable grounded reasons for being, and that all of its formations relate specifically to our unique perceiving minds.
It became evident from this that to think of images - and part of my definition claims that cultural icons are always images - in any other way than as direct productions of human sensibility is misleading. In this understanding of Schopenhauerian idealism, image meaning relates directly to how human beings perceive the world and, as Schopenhauer consistently stresses, image representations often reflect the tragic nature of life itself. All existence, for Schopenhauer, is driven by a blind, relentless willing that has no meaning other than an overwhelming desire to exist. If it is accepted that images are a-priori conditioned by perception, and that the base of this perception is tragic in the sense of its valueless, relentless willing, it seemed worthwhile to try to apply this thought to the manner in which cultural icons are formed.
From this came the essential component of the definition; that cultural icons contain a tragic, or at least a highly dramatic, human narrative. The connection between Schopenhauer and a tragic view of life, especially as it relates to cultural phenomena, is well explained by Ulrich Pothast: Schopenhauer characterizes the truly philosophical way of life in this world with referring to the same knowledge and the same attitudes which are induced by general tragedy. Therefore, one can say that in Schopenhauer’s theory of tragedy, suffering and death of the leading characters become the inspiring genius of a philosophical world view in the spectators. The tragic action enables them to renounce their normal affirmation of the Will-to-live and to temporarily find a new attitude of freedom and calmness.
(71) 10 | P a r k e r Connecting the tragic basis of human life with a product of human perception - cultural icons - has not been easy to explain in a manner that avoids diversions into complex philosophical argumentation, and although much ground has been covered and many obstacles confronted, it has to be recognised that this is the first attempt to look at cultural iconicity in this way. However, as I began this research project with the aim of clarifying what the term ‘cultural icon’ means, I believe I have covered more ground, and opened up more avenues for further research, than any comparable work in this field that I am aware of, and a large debt here is owed to the insights into human life (especially its tragic bearing) provided by Arthur Schopenhauer.