Ekphrasis in Ancient and Modern Literature
Creative and Academic Intersections
Ekphrasis in Ancient and Modern Literature
Creative and Academic Intersections
Description
This volume examines the interaction between literary and visual representation through ekphrasis in contemporary poetry and ancient literature, viewing ekphrasis as a dynamic and evolving concept rather than a fixed category. Contributions from academic experts and poets address how ancient ekphrasis relates to ancient Graeco-Roman literature and contemporary poetry, thus aiming to find commonalities and differences between ancient and modern discourses and to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, reflecting the hybrid nature of ekphrasis itself.
The book is organised around four core themes. Virtual Worlds and Embodied Images explores how ekphrasis connects the visual and the physical, while Vivid Emotions and Fluid Identities examines the impact of emotionally engaging with images. False Art and Poor Ethics looks at the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, and, finally, Absence and Presence investigates how the pursuit of absent visual objects serves as a reflection on memory and grief.
Table of Contents
Virtual Worlds and Embodied Images
1. The Virtualities of Ekphrasis: Reflections on the Pictorial Poetic Series, Jás Elsner (University of Oxford, UK)
2. Ekphrasis and Creation: from Hephaestus' Shield of Achilles to Justinian's Church of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople, Edmund Thomas (Durham University, UK)
3. On the Nature of Thingy Things or Derek Mahon and the Quantum Effects of Ekphrasis, Peter Kelly (Princeton University, USA)
Vivid Emotions and Fluid Identities
4. From Narcissus: A History, Padraig Regan (University of Cambridge, UK)
5. 'Like Sorrow's Monument': Ekphrasis and Emotion in Early Modern Female Complaint, Richard Meek (University of Hull, UK)
6. A Matter of Absence, Yiannis Doukas (Independent Essayist and Poet, Ireland)
False Art and Poor Ethics
7. The Place of Bad Art, John McAuliffe (University of Manchester, UK)
8. Moral Ambivalence and Ekphrastic Witness: Rich, Brennan and Van Neervan, Bridget Vincent (Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Denmark)
9. Ekphrasis: The Art of the Shortcut?, Vona Groarke (University of Manchester, UK)
Absence and Presence
10. American Trompe l'Oeil Painting and Fujiko Nakaya's Fog Sculptures, Eva Bourke (Independent Scholar, Ireland)
11. Seamus Heaney: Poetry, Visual Art, and Memory, Adam Hanna (University College Cork, Ireland)
12. Ciaran Carson's Philostratean Gallery: Facing Death through Ekphrasis, Karel Thein (Charles University, Czech Republic)
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | 14 Jul 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 272 |
| ISBN | 9781350521155 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 10 bw illus |
| Series | Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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