Grasping shadows: the dark side of literature, painting, photography, and film

441 Pages·2017·196.259 MB·English

by  Sharpe, William

G R A S P I N G S H A D O W S

G R A S P I N G S H A D O W S
The Dark Side of Literature, Painting,
Photography, and Film
WILLIAM CHAPMAN SHARPE
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1
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ISBN 978-0-19-067527-1
Excerpt from “Small Talk” from View from a Temporary Window, by Joanie Mackowski,
© 2010. Reprinted by Permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Excerpt from “The Hollow Men” from COLLECTED POEMS 1909–1962 by
T. S. Eliot. Copyright 1936 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Copyright © renewed 1964 by Thomas Stearns Eliot. Reprinted by permission of
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved
“Summer” from THE DOUBLE DREAM OF SPRING by John Ashbery.
Copyright © 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1986 by John Ashbery. Reprinted by
permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc., on behalf of the author. All rights reserved.
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Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
To the Shades:
Dear shadows, now you know it all.
Come shadow, come, and take this shadow up . . .
—Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
List of Illustrations xii
Introduction: The Shadow Landscape 1
1 The Shadow Speaks 43
2 The Vital Shadow 81
3 The Look-Elsewhere Shadow 137
4 The Completing Shadow 183
5 The Independent Shadow 233
6 City of Shadows 295
Epilogue: Living with Shadows 335
Notes 347
Bibliography 395
Index 411

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IF MY GRIP ON SHADOWS has become more secure in the course of writing
this book, it’s thanks to the help of many students, colleagues, and friends.
It’s a pleasure to thank them here.
On the production side, Sarah Pirovitz and the staff at Oxford University
Press smoothed the translation of this project from pixels to print. My ever-
efficient assistant Nick Morgan provided invaluable help obtaining images
and permissions.
In the ideas and expression department:
First and foremost I would like to salute the students in my seminar
BC3140, “The Shadow Knows.” This author would know far less without
their invaluable energy and insight. My gratitude to the 2011 class: Elizabeth
Ayme, Anne-Louise Brittain, Harriet Dodd, Amanda Evans, Aileen Farren,
Francesca Gottardo, Linden Hill, Virginia Hiner, Connor Lightcap, Claire
Mathieson, Mansi Mehta, Elissa Parent, Ramya Rangamannar, Sudha Rao,
Alexa Schoenfeld, Abbey Schuessler, Jessica Schwartz, Elizabeth Scott,
Viana Siniscalchi, Sarah Sommer, Claire Stern, Benita Trenk, Carla Vass,
Miriam Weinberg, and Eva Wildes.
And the 2012 class: Jade Bonacolta, Chelsea Cozen, Angelica Cusma,
Rebecca Fattell, Erin Fortgang, Neharah Gill, Serena Hong, Shelby Maniccia,
Kassidy Meck, Nataliya Nesterova, Olivia Peluso, Richard Ramos, Hillary
Rieger, Hana Rosenbaum, Sarah Silverstein, Margot Sturc, Mary Tajiri,
Caroline Thirkill, Jessica Wayne, and John Zeuner. Two other students, my
advisees Marisa Gorovitz and Kristina Budelis, shared ideas and discoveries
as they generously helped with the research.
I am deeply grateful to Roberto Casati, one of the preeminent shadow-
scholars of our time. He lectured to my seminar and shared with me his pro-
found shadow lore, including some of his unpublished work. I particularly
thank him for improving my manuscript with countless suggestions large
and small, and for inviting me to participate in a conference on “The Message
in the Shadow” at Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany, in 2015. I would also like to
thank his co-organizers Paolo Santos and Patrick Cavanagh, and all the con-
ference participants for a most instructive week in shadowland. In France,
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