Description in literature and other media PDF
Preview Description in literature and other media
Description in Literature and Other Media S i (Sim) tudieS in ntermediality 2 Executive Editor: Walter Bernhart, Graz Series Editors: Lawrence Kramer, New York Hans Lund, Lund Ansgar Nünning, Gießen Werner Wolf, Graz The book series STUDIES IN INTERMEDIALITY (SIM), launched in 2006, is devoted to scholarly research in the field of Intermedia Studies and, thus, in the broadest sense, addresses all phenomena involving more than one communicative medium. More specifically, it concerns itself with the wide range of relationships established among the various media and investigates how concepts, of a more general character, find diversified manifestations and reflections in the different media. The book series is related to, and part of, the activities of the Intermediality Programme of the Humanities Faculty at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz/Austria. STUDIES IN INTERMEDIALITY (SIM) publishes, generally on an annual basis, theme-oriented volumes, documenting and critically assessing the scope, theory, methodology, and the disciplinary and institutional dimensions and prospects of Intermedia Studies on an international scale: conference proceedings, university lecture series, collections of scholarly essays, and, occasionally, monographs on pertinent individual topics reflecting more general issues. Description in Literature and Other Media Edited by Werner Wolf and Walter Bernhart Amsterdam - New York, NY 2007 Cover Illustration: Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. Boulevard du Temple, Paris (c. 1838). Daguerreotype (12,9 x 16,3 cm). Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents - Requirements for permanence”. ISBN: 978-90-420-2310-9 ©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam – New York, NY 2007 Printed in The Netherlands Contents Preface .............................................................................................. vii Introduction Werner Wolf Description as a Transmedial Mode of Representation: General Features and Possibilities of Realization in Painting, Fiction and Music .................................................................................................. 1 Description in Literature and Related (Partly) Verbal Media Ansgar Nünning Towards a Typology, Poetics and History of Description in Fiction.............................................................................................91 Walter Bernhart Functions of Description in Poetry ................................................. 129 Arno Heller Description in American Nature Writing ....................................... 153 Doris Mader The Descriptive in Audio-/Radioliterature – a ‘Blind Date’? ........ 179 Klaus Rieser For Your Eyes Only: Some Thoughts on the Descriptive in Film ............................................................................................. 215 Description in Visual Media Johann Konrad Eberlein Dürer’s Apocalypse as the Origin of the Western System of Graphic Reproduction: A Contribution to the History of Descriptive Techniques in the Visual Arts ..................................... 239 Götz Pochat “Spiritualia sub metaphoris corporalium”? Description in the Visual Arts ...................................................................................... 265 Susanne Knaller Descriptive Images: Authenticity and Illusion in Early and Contemporary Photography ............................................................ 289 Description in Music Michael Walter Musical Sunrises: A Case Study of the Descriptive Potential of Instrumental Music ..................................................................... 319 Notes on Contributors ..................................................................... 337 Preface Intermediality studies in a broad sense, besides dealing with artefacts that involve more than one medium, are also concerned with phenom- ena that can be observed in several media and/or arts. This ‘trans- medial’ perspective opens a rich mine of medial comparisons both from a systematic and a historical perspective. The present volume, the second in the series Studies in Intermediality, continues this transmedial approach which already informed the first volume, dedicated to Framing in Literature and Other Media (2006). This time the transmedial phenomenon under scrutiny is description. Description has traditionally been discussed as a monomedial and in- deed monogeneric phenomenon from a decidedly monodisciplinary perspective. It is a curious fact that even within literary studies, and more precisely within narratology, description has received much less attention than, for instance, narrativity. Indeed, in a recent introduc- tion to narratology, Monika Fludernik’s Einführung in die Erzählthe- orie (2006), this lack of critical attention concerning description was again mentioned and further research in the field registered as an important desideratum. The scholarly neglect of description is all the more surprising in comparison to, e. g., much-researched narrativity, as description also constitutes a major ‘semiotic macro-mode’ or ‘macro-frame’ which by far transcends the boundaries of narrative texts, or even of literature in general. One aim of the present volume is to contribute to filling this con- spicuous research lacuna and to generally rekindle critical attention to description as a major phenomenon which is in fact relevant not only to novels and short stories but also, for instance, to lyric poetry, film, the visual arts, and arguably even to music. The introductory essay in this volume therefore offers a detailed theoretical discussion of de- scription, which is from the very start conceived of as a transmedial phenomenon applicable to more media than merely literature. The en- suing contributions are dedicated to individual media both from a theoretical and historical point of view. The volume originated from a cycle of lectures held at the University of Graz in the summer term of 2005 as a part of the Intermediality Programme of the university’s Humanities Faculty and presents a se- lection from the lectures given. viii The publication of this book would not have been possibly without ‘pooling’ the expertise of scholars from various fields, and it is there- fore the editors’ principal duty to thank the contributors to the afore- mentioned lecture series for their efforts. I would like to voice my thanks also on behalf of co-editor Walter Bernhart, who gave invalu- able support to the enterprise both in matters of organization and of scholarly content. In addition, I would like to thank Ingrid Hable for her valuable work in preparing the manuscript in the first phase of the editing process, as well as Katharina Bantleon for taking over Ingrid Hable’s task in the decisive later phase in such an expert and enthu- siastic way. Graz, July 2007 Werner Wolf Introduction
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