Ekphrasis: From Paragone to Encounter

An International and Interdisciplinary Conference

3-5 July 2013

Department of English, The University of Hull

This conference will offer a wide-ranging re-examination of ekphrasis – the verbal representation of visual art – from a range of historical and theoretical perspectives. Traditional conceptions of ekphrasis as linear influence or paragone (competition) between word and image have recently been challenged by scholars proposing a more reciprocal model that involves a dialogue or 'encounter' between visual and textual cultures. This conference aims to explore such theoretical developments through an exploration of the practice and process of ekphrasis from the Renaissance to the present.

Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and periods, the conference examines the larger cultural, aesthetic, and ethical questions that emerge when different artistic media interact. What are the continuities and discontinuities between ekphrastic works across different historical periods, genres, and national boundaries? How might theoretical developments in fields such as history of art feed into work on inter-art poetics by literary scholars? How might ekphrastic studies illuminate our understanding of wider issues of translation, intertextuality, and cultural exchange?

A broad range of papers are invited, but possible topics might include:

• the ethics/aesthetics of ekphrasis
• artistic lending and borrowing
• rhetoric and persuasion
• deception and trompe l’oeil
• ekphrasis and emotion
• intersemiotic/linguistic translation
• interdisciplinary approaches to ekphrasis
• icononology, iconophilia, and iconoclasm
• architectural and musical ekphrasis
• art criticism as ekphrasis
• ekphrasis and photography
• ekphrasis and pedagogy, especially creative writing
• ekphrasis and digital culture

Confirmed keynote speakers include: Stephen Cheeke (Bristol), Liliane Louvel (Poitiers), and Johanna Malt (King’s College London).

Abstracts (no more than 200 words) for 20 minute papers should be sent to Richard Meek and David Kennedy at ekphrasis2013gmail.com by 1 March 2013.

Supported by the International Association of Word and Image Studies.