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Landscape and Power
The first edition of this book, published in 1994, reshaped the direction of landscape studies by considering landscape not simply as an object to be seen or a text to be read, but as an instrument of cultural force, a central tool in the creation of national and social identities. This second edition adds not only a new preface, but five new essays—from Edward Said, W. J. T. Mitchell, Jonathan Bordo, Michael Taussig, and Robert Pogue Harrison-extending the scope of the book in remarkable ways.
383 pages, Paperback
First published May 16, 1994
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About the author
W.J. Thomas Mitchell
102 books59 followersWilliam J. Thomas Mitchell is a professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago. Editor of the journal Critical Inquiry.
His monographs, Iconology (1986) and Picture Theory (1994), focus on media theory and visual culture. He draws on ideas from Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx to demonstrate that, essentially, we must consider pictures to be living things. His collection of essays What Do Pictures Want? (2005) won the Modern Language Association's prestigious James Russell Lowell Prize in 2005. In a recent podcast interview Mitchell traces his interest in visual culture to early work on William Blake, and his then burgeoning interest in developing a science of images. In that same interview he discusses his ongoing efforts to rethink visual culture as a form of life and in light of digital media.
His monographs, Iconology (1986) and Picture Theory (1994), focus on media theory and visual culture. He draws on ideas from Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx to demonstrate that, essentially, we must consider pictures to be living things. His collection of essays What Do Pictures Want? (2005) won the Modern Language Association's prestigious James Russell Lowell Prize in 2005. In a recent podcast interview Mitchell traces his interest in visual culture to early work on William Blake, and his then burgeoning interest in developing a science of images. In that same interview he discusses his ongoing efforts to rethink visual culture as a form of life and in light of digital media.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 14, 2012
Fantastic anthology of critical geography from the mid 90's. Overall a critique of landscape as system of representation. Many great contributions esp. W.J.T. Mitchell's "Imperial Landscape", Joel Snyder's "Territorial Photography" and Edward Said's "Invention, Memory and Place".
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November 4, 2019I’m amazed I’m only reading it now. I may have come across some of it earlier- I remember reading an essay about Dutch landscape painting and it’s relationship to the politics of a country claimed from the sea dramatically, the seventeenth century landscape painting that ensued its rapid population.
( Ann Jensen Adams’ “Seventeenth Century Dutch Landscape Painting”). I found it in a tattered paperback on my art school’s kitchen table back in the nineties.... and wondered for years how I could figure out where to find the book.
Here it is - very pertinent to my work as a painter. The intro by WJT Mitchell:
“The aim of this book is to change “landscape” from a noun to a verb. It asks that we think of landscape, not as an object to be seen or a text to be read, but as a process by which social and subjective identities are formed.”
Let’s landscape.
( Ann Jensen Adams’ “Seventeenth Century Dutch Landscape Painting”). I found it in a tattered paperback on my art school’s kitchen table back in the nineties.... and wondered for years how I could figure out where to find the book.
Here it is - very pertinent to my work as a painter. The intro by WJT Mitchell:
“The aim of this book is to change “landscape” from a noun to a verb. It asks that we think of landscape, not as an object to be seen or a text to be read, but as a process by which social and subjective identities are formed.”
Let’s landscape.
February 17, 2018
Some very interesting content about the relationship of landscape painting to land ownership, land use and wider concepts of power in the cultural contexts of specific paintings. However the book lacked a consistent overview to hold the chapters together.
October 14, 2025
3 1/2 stars for the three essays I read. Jonathan Said is a fantastic writer, by far the standout of the book
June 2, 2009
Great book! Particularly the essays by Said and Mitchell. I love Mitchell's assertion that landscape is a verb and should be considered a discipline of art.
July 18, 2016
At its best when discussing the way ideology constructs actual landscapes, what "views" occlude. Missing agents in many contributions
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews