Perception of pictorial text: Problematization, actualization, new methodological approaches

The problems of perception of various types and formats of texts that have been formed over a long historical period and are rapidly transforming into the digital and the coming post-digital era are in the research focus of a number of humanities disciplines. It is texts and their perception that are today an actual research platform for solving the fundamental scientific problem of modern communication. This article actualizes and problematizes the question of the nature and perception of visual content, which is becoming urgent today, forming the paradigm of the so-called visual research. The stated problem is considered taking into account its interdisciplinarity and the factors that have determined the strengthening of visuality in modern conditions. The article analyzes the discussions that have been going on since the second half of the twentieth century about visuality and visualization, as well as about the peculiarities of the perception of pictorial texts, the specifics of which in a particular era are determined by (1) historically conditioned visual and cultural norms, perceptual models that are formed under the influence of semiosociopsychological factors of modernity, (2) topics, the arsenal of supra-temporal universal constant perception structures formed in the centuries-old practice of human interaction with pictorial sign systems. The authors pay special attention to visual narrative - a generic concept of isocontent. Without claiming to fully characterize it, they highlight, based on existing research, the paradigm of its definitions, the features of its functioning and perception. The emphasis is placed on the uniqueness of visual language and visual thinking, on the internal verbality of the pictorial text, on its semiotic codes and semantic connectives, as well as on the transformations of the language of the visual narrative in the process of its perception. The transformations are reduced to a simultaneous and interrelated process of receiving a polycode text in two languages - verbal and visual - at once. Having analyzed different approaches to the pictorial text and its perception, the authors infer that, with a certain unity of views on the nature of the pictorial text and its reception, there are different opinions on the problem of its “regulation”: from the complete rejection of any interference with the skills and abilities of the “art of seeing” (reading visual text) to the development of specific teaching methods of such art. In conclusion, the article emphasizes that, for all their importance, it is not so much the author’s strategies for creating pictorial texts that are in a strong position, but rather the background knowledge (cultural memory) of recipients, their experience of communication with isocontent (the level of mastery of visual code, reading visual narrative, decoding pictorial texts and their transcoding, for example, in verbal text; finally, interpretation skills acquired in the intermediate processes of perception of iso-content of different types and formats) - all this, according to the authors of the article, not only allows competent management, but also needs it. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.