Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0274 - Ekphrasis

In Greek, the term "Ekphrasis" means "to describe, to point out, to explain" and is associated with the desire to turn that which is visual into words. How do text and image reflect and depend on each other? For centuries, these two modes of representation have enjoyed fruitful yet difficult paths of communication and mutual questioning/interrogation. This course will touch on various issues that emerge from the rhetorical collaboration between text and image. Beginning with G.E. Lessing's 18th century discussion of the ancient sculpture of the Laocoon and ending with contemporary texts and imagery, we will examine the mutual "collaborations" between artist and writer, and writer and artist as romantic, modernist, and post-modernist activities. Writers and artists may include but are not limited to: Auden, Baudelaire, Beuys, Bruegel, Cezanne, Duchamp, Elmer, Ginsburg, van Gogh, Gogol, Hawthorne, Keats, Kennedy, Khnopff, Lessing, Moreau, Redon, Rich, Rossetti, Ruskin, Sexton, Shelley, Stein, Tennyson, Tsvetaeva, Turner, da Vinci, Waterhouse, Wilde, and Williams. This course is designed primarily for Division II students with at least one course in literature and/or art history.

Independent Work Writing and Research Prerequisites: Designed primarily for Division II students with at least one course in literature and/or art history. Students are expected to spend 6-8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.