Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Ohio University, 2007, Art History (Fine Arts)

The primary objective of this thesis is to introduce a new form of visual rhetoric called the "urban sublime." The author identifies certain elements in the work of Edward Hopper that suggest a connection to earlier American landscape paintings, the pictorial conventions of which locate them within the discursive formation of the American Sublime. Further, the widespread and persistent recognition of Hopper's images as unmistakably American, links them to the earlier landscapes on the basis of national identity construction. The thesis is comprised of four parts: First, the definitional and methodological assumptions of visual rhetoric will be addressed; part two includes an extensive discussion of the sublime and its discursive appropriation. Part three focuses on the American Sublime and its formative role in the construction of national identity, and on through the period of Westward expansion. The "urban sublime" is introduced in part four, in which the images are considered first, with regard to historical context, and then, finally, within the discursive forum of the "urban sublime."

Committee: Jeannette Klein (Advisor) Subjects: Art History