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<p>This article examines descriptions of persons, objects or scenes in three novels, Virginia Woolf’s <italic>To the Lighthouse</italic>, Margaret Atwood’s <italic>The Handmaid’s Tale</italic> and Alice Thompson’s <italic>The Book Collector</italic>, which either straightforwardly or obliquely evoke various painting genres. I argue that although ekphrasis typically names nowadays “the verbal representation of visual representation” (James Heffernan), certain descriptions beg for a revision of the modern category of ekphrasis. My present corpus includes both ekphrases ‘proper’ and descriptions which evoke, without referring to, portraits, still lifes or genre paintings. I call the latter category <italic>readerly reverse ekphrasis</italic>, to emphasise the reader’s co-operation with the author – during the reading process – to determine, beyond the painterly affinities of the description, its <italic>structural</italic> makeup as ekphrasis.</p>
</abstract>

This article examines descriptions of persons, objects or scenes in three novels, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Alice Thompson’s The Book Collector, which either straightforwardly or obliquely evoke various painting genres. I argue that although ekphrasis typically names nowadays “the verbal representation of visual representation” (James Heffernan), certain descriptions beg for a revision of the modern category of ekphrasis. My present corpus includes both ekphrases ‘proper’ and descriptions which evoke, without referring to, portraits, still lifes or genre paintings. I call the latter category readerly reverse ekphrasis, to emphasise the reader’s co-operation with the author – during the reading process – to determine, beyond the painterly affinities of the description, its structural makeup as ekphrasis.

<italic>Ut pictura poesis</italic>: Ekphrasis, Genre Painting and Still Life in Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood and Alice Thompson

American, British and Canadian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

: Ekphrasis, Genre Painting and Still Life in Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood and Alice Thompson

This article examines descriptions of persons, objects or scenes in three novels, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and...

Ut pictura poesis: Ekphrasis, Genre Painting and Still Life in Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood and Alice Thompson

Published Online: Nov 01, 2022

Page range: 33 - 53

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2022-0003

Keywords
ekphrasis, reverse ekphrasis, genre painting, still life, portrait, (Virginia Woolf), (Margaret Atwood), (Alice Thompson)

© 2022 Estella Ciobanu, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Ut pictura poesis: Ekphrasis, Genre Painting and Still Life in Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood and Alice Thompson

Published Online: Nov 01, 2022

Page range: 33 - 53

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2022-0003

Keywordsekphrasis, reverse ekphrasis, genre painting, still life, portrait, (Virginia Woolf), (Margaret Atwood), (Alice Thompson)

© 2022 Estella Ciobanu, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
ekphrasis, reverse ekphrasis, genre painting, still life, portrait, (Virginia Woolf), (Margaret Atwood), (Alice Thompson)