Make it an argument, a claim, a thesis.

Headings are very much welcomed!

Intro + Forecasting-preview paragraph

Any exploration of Postmodernism and its implications in any particular field is fraught with
the difficulty of harmonizing an intricate and multidimensional movement that from its onset
defied existing conventions, and the very notion of convention. The limits of postmodernism
are, like the movement itself, hard to precisely pin down, discretely define, and objectively
circumscribe. Maybe that last word, objective, is the one that quarrels the most with
postmodernism, as its liquid and fragmented nature resists any attempt at building a still,
objectified representation of the richness of its diffuseness. It is literary theorist Ihab Hassan
who asserts that the postmodernist only disconnects: fragments are all he pretends to trust
(3). And that is true of all aspects of postmodernism. Its proponents have no intention to build
obvious or explicit connections between the elements on the field in which they are creating; be
it in architectureRobert Venturi: I am for messy vitality over obvious unity (14), literature
Norman Bryson: [postmodernism is] the account that has no desire to make the grand
synthesis, the style that renounces the driving ambition towards Unity (705), or, as more
pertinently concerns this paper, in information design: postmodern culture [] expresses the
general theme, in opposition to modernism, of antirationality and even irrationality
(Williamson in Design Discourse). Evolving as a radical departure from Modernisms desire for
uniformity and universality, its take on any subject is pluralistic in perspective and specific in
context. Therefore, to analyze visual rhetoric guided by postmodern ideas has to incorporate
theoretical plurality and respect for the unicity of every artifact. As Mirzoeff warned about
postmodernist analysis of visual culture, tidiness is not to be expected (3), which is true in the
sense that the stable, comfortable wholeness and universality one would find in modernist
visual rhetoric is here broken down into a dynamic state of fragmentation and contextual
signification.
McRobbie states that [p]ostmodernism has entered into a more diverse number of vocabularies
more quickly than most other intellectual categories. It has spread outwards from the realms of
art history into political theory and on to the pages of youth culture magazines, record sleeves
and the fashion spreads of Vogue (14). This ubiquity warrants some kind of discrete operational
framework within which the examination in this paper can be carried out. By definition, a
method per se is antithetical to postmodern theoretical and critical thought (Rice 3). However,
there are ideas and indications that can guide an exploration that considers these relations and
provide a framework through which to operate.

I will use the model by Jonah Rice (2004) who, starting from Sonja Fosss and Valerie Petersons
approaches to the understanding of visual rhetoric, expanded upon them and developed
theoretically sound ideas to conduct postmodern analysis. The model is not prescriptive, but
indicative. It suggests what to look for and what to keep in mind while looking, but it does not
provide fixed procedures, and therein lies its analytical richness.
In this paper I will first describe the aspects of Postmodernism that will be relevant for this
analysis. Then, I will lay out the structure of Jonah Rices interpretive framework for visual
rhetoric. After that, I will use that framework to analyze the visual rhetoric of two artifacts of
information design: an information sheet about the elimination of lead-based paint hazards in
homes and a brochure about health insurance plans.
oppositional elements, co-constructed elements (Barton and Barton on Postmodernism); visual
elements seems to work, contextual elements, and interrogative.
Heuristic for analyzing documents.
Claim: broad scope of the model, why that is.
What value does it add to our understanding of the artifact?
Explain Postmodernism in terms of the model

McRobbie, Angela. Postmodernism and Popular Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.

Hassan, Ihab. Pluralism in postmodern perspective. Critical Inquiry (1986) 12:503-20.

Bryson, Norman. Review of The Interpretation of Pictures. By Mark Roskill. The Art Bulletin
(1989) 71:704-7.
Rice, Jonah. A Critical Review of Visual Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age: Complementing, Extending, and
Presenting New Ideas. Review of Communication 4 (2004): 63-74.
Mirzoeff, N. An introduction to visual culture. London: Routledge, 1999.

Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York: Little Brown & Co, 1977