Reading List
Summary:
I have chosen to use the concepts of the sublime and ekphrasis as my guiding terms because these concepts have always been of interest to me throughout my time as an English major. I think the concept of describing visual art in poetry and literature as a whole is interesting given that it provides a metaphysical analysis of art, forcing the reader to find what terms and literary elements help depict an image. A lot of ekphrasis that has always intrigued me is how visual art can inspire other artists and transcend their work. I have noticed that particularly in the Romantic Era, many poetic works involved ekphrasis. Poems of Keats and Wordsworth took inspiration from separate forms of visual art and involved ekphrasis to illuminate a deeper meaning that could not be achieved without the device. Currently, I am interested in studying ekphrasis in the Romantic Era, involving concepts of the sublime and how these sensory devices worked with create deeper meanings in poetry. I am still looking for a journal to use, and once I find one, I plan to use it in conversation with my reading list, applying an aesthetic lens.
Updates:
Over the past few weeks as I have reviewed my list, I have decided to involve Keats in my analysis of ekphrastic poetry. The Irish poet is a famous user of ekphrasis in poetry, and his descriptions and inspirations from visual art are both similar and very different than Wordsworth’s. Most of my favorite Keats’ poems are ones where he incorporates art as a way of understanding temporality, and even broader concepts such as life and death. These poems include Ode to Immortality, Ode to a Grecian Urn, and Ode to a Nightingale.
Key Terms: The Sublime, Ekphrasis, Poetics, Romanticism, Art History,
Primary Sources:
Keats, John. “Ode to a Grecian Urn.” Chicago Review, vol. 8, no. 1, Jan. 1954, p. 76. https://doi.org/10.2307/25293011.
Keats John. “Ode on Melancholy.” Poetry Foundation. Ode on Melancholy | The Poetry Foundation
Wordsworth, William. “VI Elegiac Stanzas: suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle, in a Storm, painted by Sir George Beaumont.” Oxford University Press eBooks, 1807, pp. 259–60. https://doi.org/10.1093/oseo/instance.00081630.
Wordsworth, William. “The World is Too Much with Us.” Poetry Foundation. The World Is Too Much With Us | The Poetry Foundation
3-5 Secondary or Theoretical Works:
Carelse, Michael. “Unique Forms of Ekphrasis: The Keepsake and the Illustrative Poetry of the Literary Annuals.” Victorian Poetry, vol. 61, no. 3, Sept. 2023, pp. 301–35. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1353/vp.2023.a915653.
Burwick, F. (1996). Ekphrasis and the Mimetic Crisis of Romanticism. In Icons, texts, iconotexts : essays on ekphrasis and intermediality / (pp. 78–104). W. de Gruyter. PeterWagner_1996_EkphrasisandtheMimeti_Icons-Texts-Iconotext.pdf
Toikkanen, Jarkko. “Intermedial Experience and Ekphrasis in Wordsworth’s ‘Slumber.’” Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, vol. 17, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 107–24. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=821eba48-1748-376a-852e-c144d95235cc. https://research.ebsco.com/c/rd5flh/viewer/pdf/afzyz3xjwj