Talk:Ecphrasis
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er, i think this article is largely incorrect in broadening the use of the word ekphrasis too rapidly. here´s some considerations:
- ekphrasis historically a strictly rhetoric term for any kind of vivid depiction in words
- use of ekphrasis is more frequent in the expert literature then ecphrasis
- first known use (?)in Aphthonius's Progymnasmata
- 'famous' example in Catullus 64 refers to a long passage where a description of the bride Thetis´treasure has a scene on a textile depicting ariadne's story which is then told ´as seen depicted'.
The term then is used to categorise some Romantic works, setting a tradition of rendering painting , sculpture or architecture in (poetical) language. The use of the term in the broad meaning as anything mixing or spreading a subject to different arts is fairly recent, and, i would say, rather fashionable or boldly metaphorical.
here´s a quote from Muse to back this up:
"Although the concept is at least as old as Homer, ekphrasis emerges quite late in antiquity as a privileged term reserved for rendering an art work into words. In fact, the rhetoricians of the "Second Sophistic" used ekphrasis to cover any set-piece of vivid description generally; and it became in the second century c.e. one of the standard exercises, or progymnasmata, of rhetorical training. Heffernan prudently restricts the scope of his literary inquiry, first to the translation of a work of art, and then more specifically to encounters between poetry and the visual arts."
(from Macksey, Richard 1931- "Museum of Words: The Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery" MLN - Volume 110, Number 4, September 1995 (Comparative Literature Issue), pp. 1010-1015 abstract found here:http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/mln/v110/110.4br_heffernan.html
[edit] Re "horrible intro"
"Reworded horrible intro, now merely bad". Nydas, why don't describe the previous efforts by others in really insulting terms, just in case you haven't made your point? Flaming Norah! Dieter Simon 00:58, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
