Jayson Scott Grimes

• In the seven chapters which comprise this work, the movement of zoomorphic or animalistic imagery is shown to be present throughout the waves of immigration to the United States as it is evidenced in illustrations taken from the respective waves. In this aim, the zoomorphic imagery is shown to be consistently present in illustrations, not only pictorially but also in regards to the language used in the accompanying texts and titles attached to the illustrations. Furthermore, in order to support the drawn conclusions from each wave which prove the migration of zoomorphic imagery throughout the various waves, a historic review is offered for each major chapter containing relevant information on depicted events and immigrant groups. Overall methodologies used herein include, Panofsky’s iconographic analysis in which a three-tiered reading of images is undertaken in order to isolate icons which transport meaning to the viewer, both contemporarily and contemporaneously, via their careful placement in relation to the scopic regimes at the time of creation and also currently. Additionally, the use of language both as text to be read regarding the illustrations and text included in the illustrations themselves in the forms of captions, titles, etc., will be subjected to discourse analysis and the degree to which the images and texts work together to create a unique imagery that is observable throughout the historic taxonomies is determined. The work then proves that considering historic events, the interpretive elements of the imagery are not contemporary reimaginings but relate closely to contemporaneous scopic regime interpretations that are traceable up until and including the continuing debate on immigration. The discourse analyses follow those guidelines developed by Foucault and Gee and especially poignant here is the notion of the discursive formation and the undefined ‘more’ that result from formative aspects of discourse at its inception. Discourse thereby contributes to the tracing of the imagery as it is possible to track also the phraseology used in relationship to immigrants during varying timeframes in the United States’ immigration history and to review how, and to which degree, that language has morphed in relation to its inclusion of animalistic elements. It is also in the discourse analyses in which the zoomorphic imagery supersedes the level of visuality and enters concretely into imagery. That concretization is explored here as a discursive formation, and yet this work proves that this does not involve a stagnation of imagery as there is a driving force which is recognizable in the successive waves. The zoomorphic aspects are examined insomuch as the imagery is compared to animal imagery, anatomy and behavior. These seven chapters prove that there is indeed an ever-present zoomorphic imagery throughout the waves of immigration to the United States and such an endeavor has not yet been undertaken in an academic context. The comprehensive work of Roger Daniels offers much of the backbone to the historic methodology used, and the contribution of his corpus is reviewed in the literary review chapter which gives an up-to-date account of the state of research in regards to this particular enquiry. As there is very little research combining these multiple analyses in regards to American immigrant imagery, scholarly material has been used from the field of Human-Animal Studies as this growing discipline encompasses similar approaches to the examination and appropriation of animals in human civilization even if not exactly matching to the research aims and findings of this work. An introduction, outlining the target questions and the basic approach of the text is followed by a literature review and a methodology section wherein the various methods that are used to trace the imagery are outlined and the reasons for their selection as integral are stated. Next, there are three major chapters which are based on the time period that each wave covers (a taxonomy which is explained in the methodology chapter), with each chapter containing an introduction to the illustrations, the historic background on them, the pictorial analyses and the discourse analysis of the wave. For each chapter there is also a conclusion which presents the findings of that particular chapter and leads into the next. Finally, at the end an overall conclusion is given which functions to not only summarize the work as a whole but also to reiterate the proof of the use of zoomorphic imagery throughout the immigration waves. Also, the conclusion contains markers which might direct further scholarly research on this research topic and poses questions which have sprung out of the research contained herein. Overall, Migrating Imageries: zoomorphic depictions of immigrants in American illustrations serves as a springboard from which the relationship between zoomorphic imagery and the depiction of the immigrant in American illustrations (and also in the general visuality) can be based, which could consequently lead to furthered academic research in this area. This work joins the ongoing development of the academic field of Human-Animal Studies and contributes to the larger study of American visual culture.