Still Ekphrasis? Visual and Non-Visual Art in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction

Jarosław Hetman

doi:10.17951/lsmll.2020.44.2.15-25

Abstract

The article explores the ancient notion of ekphrasis in an attempt to redefine it and to adjust it to the requirements of the contemporary literary and artistic landscape. An overview of the transformations in the world of art in the 20th century allows us to adjust our understanding of what art is today and to examine its existence within the literary context. In light of the above, I postulate a broadening of the definition of ekphrasis so as to include not only painting and sculpture on the one side, and poetry on the other, but also to open it up to less conventional forms of artistic expression, and allow for its use in reference to prose. In order to illustrate its relevance to the novel, I have conducted a study of three contemporary novels – John Banville’s Athena, Kurt Vonnegut’s Bluebeard and Don DeLillo’s Mao II – in order to uncover the innovative ways in which novelists nowadays use ekphrasis to reinvigorate long prose.

Highlights

The article explores the ancient notion of ekphrasis in an attempt to further adjust it to the requirements of the contemporary literary and artistic landscape
Jarosław Hetman always remembered for his contributions to the study of non-literary arts, and yet I find his remarks published in The Work of Art: Immanence and Transcendence (1997) illuminating for reflecting on ekphrasis
Opponents of adopting a narratological perspective on all arts might argue that this take will inevitably be biased in favor of literature as narratology’s main subject of interest, but we should remember that this bias is already inscribed in ekphrasis itself, a literary description of an extra-literary form of expression

Summary

Introduction

The article explores the ancient notion of ekphrasis in an attempt to further adjust it to the requirements of the contemporary literary and artistic landscape. In order to discuss the way in which visual, and later, conceptual arts have provided inspiration to writers across the centuries, I would first like to focus on the contemporary understanding of art.

Results

Conclusion