LMKB_a406 Ekphrasis as Intermedia Genre

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2024

The course is not taught in Autumn 2024

Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Petr Bubeníček, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. et Mgr. Stanislava Fedrová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Petr Bubeníček, Ph.D.
Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Veronika Bromová, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 25 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/25, only registered: 0/25, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/25
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Ekphrasis as an Intermedia Genre and Technique

The course introduces students to the foundations of the traditions and forms of ekphrasis as a genre as well as a specific descriptive technique, from its beginnings to its current status. Interpretation of selected texts will serve as the basis for discussion on whether and – especially – by which means ekphrastic representations of an image achieve sensory-suggestive effect, that is, the effect of mental visualisation, which leads the recipient to evocation: conjuring an idea of the thing that is described. The course will also examine the usefulness of differentiating between an image in the represented world and a scene in the represented world; and the reasons why, in an ekphrastic text, which represents a dual representation structure, the mediality of the thing displayed matters as well. The way in which an ekphrastic passage is integrated into the macrostructure of the text, and thus how descriptive representation works also as narrative strategy with a specific and significant function in the construction of a narrative, will be examined, as well as the means by which a verbal medium can – using its specific devices – imitate or simulate medium-specific techniques of a different artistic form.

In terms of interpretation, the course will be sufficiently concerned with texts that established ekphrasis as a technique or an autonomous genre (e.g. Homer, Virgil, Philostratus, John Keats) and selected ekphrastic poetry (e.g. English Romantics, Jaroslav Vrchlický, Wisława Szymborska), but its main focus will lie in 19th – 21th century prose both in world literature (e.g. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, John Fowles, John Banville, A. S. Byatt, W. G. Sebald, Donna Tartt) and in Czech literature (e.g. Jakub Arbes, Julius Zeyer, Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, Alois Jirásek, Bohumil Hrabal, Miloš Urban, Jana Šrámková).

Students will be able to use analytical and interpretative skills acquired in the course Literary Work, as well as knowledge of methodology acquired in the course Intermediality. The discussion will involve theoretical reflections of ekphrasis from different viewpoints; it will also accentuate the intermedia approach and the issues brought up by this particular methodology. Considering the necessity of understanding not only verbal, but also visual representation, students will also be able to use the knowledge obtained in courses on visual arts.
Learning outcomes
- Students will be capable of a certain degree of knowledge concerning the genre of ekphrasis and current theoretical reflection of the topic.
- They will be able to place a work interpreted within a wide context, and – based on that – to observe its specific features and utilise traditional approaches to interpretation.
- The students’ understanding of the specific approaches used in particular works will enable them to understand, in a general way, the intermedia connections between literature and visual arts.
- They will therefore reinforce their abilities in interdisciplinary cooperation.
Syllabus
  • The tradition of ekphrasis as a rhetoric category: representation and mental image. The beginnings of the genre of ekphrasis: mental visualisation between seeing and knowing.
  • Enargeia as an illusion of perception. Ekphrasis as a reflection of mediality.
  • Ekphrasis as an object of theoretical interest: the problem of dual representation.
  • Referential relationships: is there a point to which a visual representation must be described or detailed in a text, so that it is possible to speak of ekphrasis?
  • The conception of timelessness and of art bridging the gap between then and now.
  • Still images of an instant and or v. narrative success: On the border of decription and narration.
  • Gaze, stare, observation: who is the observer?
  • Ekphrasis and pictorial model, intermedia approaches.
Literature
    required literature
  • BOEHM, Gottfried – PFOTENHAUER, Helmut (eds.), 1995, Beschreibungkunst – Kunstbeschreibung. Ekphrasis von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, München: Wilhelm Fink
  • RIPPL, Gabriele (ed.), 2015 Handbook of Intermediality. Literature – Image – Sound – Music, Berlin: De Gruyter
    recommended literature
  • FEDROVÁ, Stanislava – JEDLIČKOVÁ, Alice, 2016, Viditelné popisy. Vizualita, sugestivita a intermedialita literární deskripce, Praha: Akropolis
  • FEDROVÁ, Stanislava – JEDLIČKOVÁ, Alice, 2010, „Narativní scénáře a piktoriální modely“, World Literature Studies 2 (19), č. 2, s. 20–41
  • FEDROVÁ, Stanislava – JEDLIČKOVÁ, Alice, 2010, 2008 „Ekfráze: deskripce vs. narativ“, in: A. Jedličková - O. Sládek, eds., Vyprávění v kontextu, Praha: Ústav pro českou literaturu, s. 119–139
  • HALL, James, 1991, 2008 [1974], Slovník námětů a symbolů ve výtvarném umění, Praha: Mladá fronta / Paseka
  • HEFFERNAN, James, 1993, Museum of Words. The Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery, Chicago – London: University of Chicago Press
  • HOLLANDER, John, 1995, The Gazer’s Spirirt. Poems Speaking to Silent Works of Art, Chicago–London: University of Chicago Press
  • LESSING, Gotthold Ephraim, 1960 [1766], Láokoón čili o~hranicích malířství a poezie, Praha: SNKLHU; též in: Hamburská dramaturgie. Láokoón. Stati, Praha: Odeon 1980
  • MITCHELL, William J. T., 1994, Picture Theory. Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
  • RAJEWSKY, Irina O., 2002, Intermedialität, Tübingen – Basel: Francke
  • RIPPL, Gabrielle, 2005, Beschreibungs-kunst. Zur intermedialen Poetik angloamerikanischer Ikontexte (1880—2000), München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag
  • ROBILLARD, Valerie – JONGENEEL, Els (eds.), 1998, Pictures into Words. Theoretical and Descriptive Approaches to Ekphrasis, Amsterdam: VU University Press
  • SAGER EIDT, Laura M., 2008, Writing and Filming the Painting. Ekphrasis in Literature and Film, Amsterdam: Rodopi
  • SCHAEFER, Christina – RENTSCH, Stefanie, 2004, „Ekphrais: zur Begriffsbestimmung in der neueren Forschung“, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 114, č. 2, s. 132–165
  • THEIN, Karel, 2006, „Filostratos Starší a zrození dějin umění z~ducha ekfrasis“, in: Pictura verba cupit. Sborník příspěvků pro Lubomíra Konečného, eds. Beket Bukovinská – Lubomír Slavíček, Praha: Artefactum, s. 23–29
  • YACOBI, Tamar, 1995, „Pictorial Models and Narrative Ekphrasis“, Poetics Today 16, č. 4, s. 599–649
  • WEBB, Ruth, 2009, Ekphrasis, Imagination and Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory and Practice, Farnham, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate
  • WOLF, Werner – BERNHART, Walter (eds.), 2007: Description in Literature and Other Media. Studies in Intermediality 2, Amsterdam: Rodopi; úvodní studie č. 2013, Praha: ÚČL AV ČR
Teaching methods
Contents of the course:
combination of lectures, student presentations, discussion and interpretation
Assessment methods
Conditions for passing the course:
- active participation in the course, preparation for the course (i.e. reading extracts of primary texts selected for each lesson)
- short, informative presentation in the course
- essay containing an original interpretation of a selected ekphrastic text
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every other week.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 0.
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