Comparative Literature Graduate Conference
King’s College London
Friday, November 9th, 2012
Keynote Speaker:
Stephen Cheeke
(University of Bristol)
Ekphrasis
is a literary mode that spans the entire breadth of literature, from
Achille’s shield to Auden’s ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’. Defined by James
Heffernan as “the verbal representation of graphic representation,” the
referential scope of ekphrasis has expanded and contracted according to
critical taste. In the light of the increasingly complex
way contemporary scholars have come to view visual literacy and
culture, ekphrasis once again demands reconsideration. The “visual
turn” in criticism, alongside the upsurge of interest in digital and
material cultures, has enlarged the boundaries of what representation
entails, and has questioned its stability. In an age of
interdisciplinarity, ekphrasis could provide a model for comparison
that moves beyond binary encounters between discrete categories, such
as national literature, art history, and the classics? Rather
than sublating image to word, might we resituate ekphrasis as a
multi-media negotiation of meaning and form?
In this conference, we are
interested in questioning not only the nature of ekphrasis, but also
the supposedly essential nature of representation. What
dualisms, such as literature/visual arts, subject/authority, are
implicit in traditional modes of ekphrasis, and how might other
creative forms, like music, subvert this? What kinds of
power structures or hierarchies are embedded in ekphrasis, and how
might we negotiate these, especially in the light of post-colonial and
transnational theory? What type of gaze does ekphrasis
entail, and is this related to anxieties about the form? What
other art forms might be included in ekphrastic poetics that would
contribute to interdisciplinary modes of thinking, such as
architecture, performance art, or digital media? How far can ekphrasis
provide a self-reflexive model for comparison?
- Literature
as a translation of the visual
- Ekphrasis
and the Modern Languages
- Ekphrastic
hierarchies: word/image, dominant/submissive, etc.
- Taste
and aesthetics
- Relations
of space and time in ekphrasis
- Stasis
and movement
- The
reverse: art depicting literature
- Anxieties
of ekphrasis
- Ekphrasis
in the digital age reproduction
- Music
and ekphrasis
- New
media and ekphrasis
- Icononology
and iconoclasm
- Metapictures
- Architecture
and ekphrasis
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers exploring any aspect of ekphrasis as an inherently comparative mode. Please send 300 word abstracts plus a short biography to reframingekphrasis@gmail.com. Deadline for abstracts is 31st July 2012. We will inform participants of acceptance by 15th August 2012.
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