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Iconoclasm and Iconophobia: Four Historical Case Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Madeline H. Caviness
Madeline H. Caviness*
Affiliation:
Tufts University, USA
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Extract

Iconophobia, literally the fear of images, usually occurs in proportion to the powers attributed to images by their believers and attackers. In the worst cases, these fears have led to, or coincide with, a cycle of violence that may involve the actual destruction of images (iconoclasm) and the actual destruction of human life. The distinction between the two activities is often blurred by the language we use: For instance, purging public spaces of the giant statues of Soviet leaders in the early 1990s resonates with the Stalinist purges of living people a generation before (fig. 1). The rhetoric of representation in such photographs of the subjugation and hanging of Lenin('s statue) in Romania in 1990, invokes a retaliation against the real man. The sheer number of such public statues throughout the Soviet Union and its satellites provided many communities with this opportunity for revenge. We also speak of the suppression of imagery, as of popular uprisings; or the eradication of certain beliefs, subjects in art, and even whole tribes of people.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 50 , Issue 3: Identities, Beliefs, Images , August 2003, pp. 99 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2003

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