Otto Neurath's Isotype and the Rhetoric of Neutrality

摘要

"Based on the modernist belief in universal, objective and neutral communication, Otto Neurath's Isotype sought to provide a pictorial language system that transcends linguistic and cultural barriers. This essay attempts to do a rhetorical analysis of Isotype, while recognizing that the underlying modernist principles are an unattainable dream. Employ-rning Robin Kinross' notion of 'rhetoric of neutrality' as a central theoretical concept, this essay gathers relevant theoretical concepts from rhetorical studies and linguistics, applying them into the analysis.