 |
| Author | Post |
|---|
vizhenz
Staff
|
Posted: Aug 30th, 2007 04:34 AM |
|
Ekphrasis: what it is
Ekphrasis, alternately spelled ecphrasis, is a term used to denote poetry or poetic writing concerning itself with the visual arts, artistic objects, and/or highly visual scenes. This style of writing is characteristic in such works as Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and Shelley's "On the Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery." Given that the Romantic era is characterized by protracted, poetic musings upon the visual aspects of nature, it is not surprising that ekphrasis found a home in Romantic poetry. However, ekphrasis has its origins much earlier -- as far back as the Classical era. The term is found in Aphthonius's Progymnasmata, an early textbook on style. For example, Virgil took great pains to describe the hero Achilles' shield at the beginning of the Aeneid. Furthermore, the end of the Romantic era did not signify the demise of ekphrasis. Indeed, it flourished among the pre-Raphaelite poets. Furthermore, although the slums of London are hardly artistic, they are provocative visual images as depicted in the works of Dickens, George Gissing -- and notably in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, which recalls Blake's images of a gray, fetid city. Although poetry about works of art is the most obvious form of ekphrasis, it need not be the only one as, again, ekphrasis can be about any visually powerful scene or subject. Nor need it only be applied to poetry or even traditionally high-brow "classic" literature. Ray Bradbury's short story, "The Veldt," read by high schoolers and college freshman comp students nationwide contains a particularly striking visual description of the grasslands of southern Africa. A sharply contrasting image of simulated sterility in a futuristic Tokyo is found in William Gibson's Neuromancer.
I will post a few pictures every week...
Attachment: 9ba2.jpg (Downloaded 17 times)
____________________
HELP SUPPORT VIZHENZ.COM
|
|
|
Bishop
Co-Admin
|
Posted: Aug 30th, 2007 05:45 AM |
|
| nice
____________________
HELP SUPPORT VIZHENZ.COM
Let The Light From The Lighthouse Shine On You
|
|
|
Dymon J
Staff
|
Posted: Aug 30th, 2007 08:32 PM |
|
| I THINK I MIGHT BE INTO THIS NEW FORM....
____________________
HELP SUPPORT VIZHENZ.COM
|
|
|
insatiableus
Staff
| Joined: | Jan 13th, 2006 |
| Location: | Maryland USA |
| Posts: | 1341 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |    |
|
Posted: Sep 6th, 2007 11:12 PM |
|
This is so awesome.......
____________________
HELP SUPPORT VIZHENZ.COM
|
|
|
Current time is 09:58 PM | |
|
|
|
|
