Writing and filming the painting : ekphrasis in liturature and film

244 Pages·2008·3.793 MB·English

by  Laura M. Sager (ed.)

Writing and Filming
the Painting
117 Internationale Forschungen zur
Allgemeinen und
Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft
In Verbindung mit
Norbert Bachleitner (Universität Wien), Dietrich Briesemeister (Friedrich
Schiller-Universität Jena), Francis Claudon (Université Paris XII), Joachim
Knape (Universität Tübingen), Klaus Ley (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität
Mainz), John A. McCarthy (Vanderbilt University), Alfred Noe (Universität
Wien), Manfred Pfister (Freie Universität Berlin), Sven H. Rossel (Universität
Wien)
herausgegeben von
Alberto Martino
(Universität Wien)
Redaktion: Ernst Grabovszki
Anschrift der Redaktion:
Institut für Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, Berggasse 11/5, A-1090 Wien
Writing and Filming
the Painting
Ekphrasis in Literature and Film
Laura M. Sager Eidt
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2008
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Cover photo:
Jacob Ivan Eidt and Laura Eidt
Cover design:
Pier Post
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ISBN: 978-90-420-2457-1
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Acknowledgements

This book was first written as a dissertation, and I am grateful to all the
wonderful professors at the University of Texas in Austin who helped shape
this project. I would like to thank Dr. Alexandra Wettlaufer for her guidance
and insights, Dr. Janet Swaffar for her careful editing and constructive
criticism as well as for her encouragement and engagement, Dr. Virginia
Higginbotham for her help with the discussions of film and film terms, Dr.
Lily Litvak for her perspective on the Spanish texts, Dr. Seth Wolitz for his
interesting and stimulating ideas and references, and Dr. Richard Shiff for his
art historical perspective, so central to my work.
I am also greatly indebted to Marieke Schilling, Esther Roth, and
especially Dr. Ernst Grabovszki for editorial help and suggestions, to Dr.
Scott Dupree at the University of Dallas for providing financial support for
the illustrations, and to the artist Thomas Sruth for letting me use his Museum
Photographs free of charge.
I dedicate this book to my parents, Peter and Else-Maria Sager, who
shaped my interest in the visual arts by taking me to every museum possible
since I was a baby, and whose contribution to this book is greater than words
can express; to my husband Ivan Eidt for his encouragement and love; and to
our son Niccolo Dominik who allowed me to finish this book during his naps
on my lap.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Toward a Definition of Ekphrasis in Literature and Film 9
Introduction 9
The Aesthetics of Ekphrasis 10
Ekphrasis and Ideology 14
Expanding the Definition of Ekphrasis 16
The Case for Cinematic Ekphrasis 18
Film and Painting 21

Chapter 2
Methodology 27
Thomas Struth’s Museum Photographs and Visual Ekphrasis 27
Ekphrastic Categories in Texts and Films 38
Four Categories of Ekphrasis in Literature and Film 44
Attributive Ekphrasis 45
Depictive Ekphrasis 47
Interpretive Ekphrasis 50
Dramatic Ekphrasis 56

Chapter 3
Goya’s Sleep of Reason in Poetry, Drama and Film:
Dramatizing the Artist’s Battle with his Creatures 65
Introduction 65
Word and Image in Goya’s Caprichos and the
Sleep of Reason 69
Goya’s Sleep of Reason in Poetry, Drama, and Film 79
Günter Kunert’s Poem 79
Antonio Buero Vallejo’s Drama 83
Carlos Saura’s Film 105
Conclusion 115

Chapter 4
Goya’s Sleep of Reason in Lion Feuchtwanger’s Novel and
Konrad Wolf’s Film Adaptation: Private or Social Demons? 119
Introduction 119
Uses of Ekphrasis in the Novel and the Film 123
The Sleep of Reason in the Novel and the Film 131
Conclusion 143

Chapter 5
From Screenplay to Film: Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits
and Social Identity Construction through Ekphrasis 147
Introduction 147
Self-Stylization in Rembrandt’s Self Portraits 152
Artistic Ambitions: The Self Portrait at the Age of 34 154
Three Self Portraits as Painter 155
Rembrandt as Painter of the Word 161
Rembrandt’s Self Portraits in Alexander Korda’s Film (1936)
and Carl Zuckmayer’s Screenplay (1936) 163
From Screenplay to Film: Self Portrait as Zeuxis
vs. Self Portrait at the Age of 34 164
Saskia and Artist in his Studio 170
The Late Self Portraits in Screenplay and Film 173
Conclusion 180

Chapter 6
Vermeer’s Women in Film and Fiction: Ekphrasis and Gendered
Structures of Vision 183
Introduction 183
Vermeer’s Women: Constructing Private, Aesthetic,
and Socio-Cultural Identities 185
The Girl with a Pearl Earring 189
Tracy Chevalier and Peter Webber: Girl with a Pearl Earring 191
Susan Vreeland’s Girl in Hyacinth Blue and Brent Shield’s
Brush with Fate 201
Conclusion 205

Chapter 7
Conclusion: The Cerebral and the Affective Function of Ekphrasis 213
Introduction 213
The Discourses of Cinematic Ekphrasis 214
Paragone 217

Works Cited 221
Filmography 235
List of Illustrations/Image Credits 236
8
Chapter 1

Toward a Definition of Ekphrasis
in Literature and Film

Introduction

The classical figure of ekphrasis has become an increasingly popular critical
concept in recent years. A keyword search on the MLA international
bibliography results in 468 articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations,
of which 177 were published in the last five years. Whereas traditionally
ekphrasis was confined to poems that describe or analyze works of art, it is
now generally accepted and used as a term that applies to all literary genres,
that is, novel, drama, as well as essay. In spite of the expansion and
popularity of this concept, however, it has not yet been applied to film. In the
pages to follow I will contend that the concept of ekphrasis is applicable to
film as well. Moreover, I will argue that ekphrasis can function as a useful
tool to explore many of the issues at heart in the relationship between words
and images which are central to the filmic discourse and the hybrid,
collaborative nature of the cinematic medium.
The term ekphrasis is generally used to refer to works of poetry and prose
that talk about or incorporate visual works of art. Definitions of ekphrasis,
then, have been anchored traditionally in a particular modality: verbal
discourses that directly verbalize one or more visual images, often discussed
in terms of a power struggle between author and painter. Film’s relationship
with painting, although never discussed in terms of ekphrasis, has similarly
been seen in terms of a competition: critics have traditionally rejected film’s
ability to do justice to art works and have accused film of not being true to
the painting, of fragmenting it.1 As I will show in this chapter as I outline the
historical evolution of ekphrasis and current research on film-painting
relationships, similar issues are at play in the relationships between literary
texts and paintings, and films and paintings, but this connection has so far not
been explored. This study investigates that missing dimension.

1
André Bazin takes up this criticism and argues against it in his “Painting and Cinema”, in
What is Cinema? Trans. by Hugh Gray (Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California P,
1967), pp.164-72 (esp. pp. 164-66).