In this class we will discuss painting poems by prominent British poets which were produced within the last 40 years. This means that we will read poems by R.S. Thomas, U.A. Fanthorpe, Edwin Morgan, Seamus Heaney, Anne Stevenson, Michael Hamburger, Toni Harrison, Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy side by side with the usually well-known paintings they relate to, for example, masterpieces by Titian, Rembrandt, John Singer Sargent, van Gogh and Lucian Freud. Some of the considered painting poems were commissioned for a particular cultural event, namely the opinion poll of The Heraldnewspaper on Scotland’s Favourite Paintings in 2005 or the Metamorphosis: Poems Inspired by Titian-project of the National Gallery in 2012.
Painting poems are often discussed under the term ekphrasis which denotes the vivid description of an art-object in a literary text. As will become clear, poets do much more than describe; they discuss, narrativize and often enact a contemplation of a painting in such a way that readers are invited to an aesthetic illusion but also to second-order observations, i.e. reflections on specific acts of observing. The focus of our discussions will be on such aspects of intermedial relation. Basically, we will try to answer the following questions: What kinds of knowledge and which interpretative skills are required to understand and to enjoy painting poems? How, why, and to what purpose do poets engage with paintings? Which types of interart or intermedial relations can be distinguished? And what are the wider cultural implications of such poetic engagements?
Material will be made available through Moodle.
Assessment/requirements: Übung: test; Seminar: 12-page research paper
- Kursleiter/in: Uwe Klawitter