The visual aspect of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poetry
| Thesis title in Czech: | Vizuální aspekt poezie Dante Gabriela Rossettiho |
|---|---|
| Thesis title in English: | The visual aspect of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poetry |
| Key words: | Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poezie, preraffaelité, obraz, viktoriánská literatura |
| English key words: | Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poetry, Pre-Raphaelites, Victorian literature |
| Academic year of topic announcement: | 2010/2011 |
| Thesis type: | diploma thesis |
| Thesis language: | angličtina |
| Department: | Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK) |
| Supervisor: | PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc. |
| Author: | hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept. |
| Date of registration: | 19.05.2011 |
| Date of assignment: | 20.05.2011 |
| Administrator's approval: | not processed yet |
| Confirmed by Study dept. on: | 08.07.2011 |
| Date and time of defence: | 10.09.2012 09:00 |
| Date of electronic submission: | 17.08.2012 |
| Date of proceeded defence: | 10.09.2012 |
| Submitted/finalized: | committed by student and finalized |
| Opponents: | PhDr. Zdeněk Beran, Ph.D. |
| Guidelines |
| My MA thesis is going to be concerned with Pre-Raphaelite poetry, more specifically with the poetry of Gabriel Dante Rossetti whose poems are interrelated with their representation in fine arts since Rossetti himself was a painter. Therefore his poems are closely related to his conception of the Pre-Raphaelite painting. I am going to explore the visual aspect of his poetry: not only the poems which have their visual counterpart in painting (such as The Blessed Damozel) but also those which only suggest a vivid pictorial representation. The major concern will be the literariness of a work of art and the visual aspect in literary works, the latter being of more relevance for my thesis. I have chosen this topic mainly because of my great interest in poetry and its aesthetic value, and secondarily because this field of research is not very well explored yet and deserves to be given some attention. This might, of course, pose some difficulties at obtaining relevant secondary literature for my thesis; yet I expect that this slight problem would not hinder my research as there are many available materials in online academic articles or in libraries either abroad or in other cities. I am going to analyse some of Rossetti’s poems which have been painted, alongside with the particular paintings as such (taking into consideration the possibility of reading the poem without having seen the painting, and also comparing the visual impact of the poem with the actual visual representation of it), then I shall also analyse literary aspects of other paintings of Rossetti’s which have not been written as a poem, and finally, which is going to be the chief concern of my thesis, I shall examine his poems which have a strong visual appeal on the reader and create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind without the aid of its physical representation in fine arts. This is going to be undertaken by close-reading of the poems and their consequent interpretation with regard to the structure, language, diction, literary representation of colours, shapes and movement; in short, the properties of a picture as they are represented by language in poetry and determine how these two media can approximate the quality of one another. I also shall attempt to suggest the rough description of the picture which the poems create during the process of reading of such visually appealing poems. Thus, I shall to compare the effects of a work of art in two modes of representation in three combinations: a poem versus painting; painting suggestive of a poem; poem suggestive of a painting; the latter one being the most important viewpoint. The language of a painting is going to be juxtaposed with the language of a poem, in the sense that the visual representation may or may not differ from the literary representation, taking into account the aesthetic of Pre-Raphaelite painting, its importance in poetry and Rossetti’s own concept of the movement. Rossetti, who was a painter and a poet, is therefore the best example on which I shall demonstrate how these two modes of representation can cooperate in a work of art, or perhaps each expressing something slightly different, whether it be a shift of emphasis on another aspect or some missing elements in each. The comparison of a poem and a painting is going to be based especially on the fact that both may complement each other if they are observed jointly; yet I shall examine what is missing if the visually charged poem (or the literary charged painting) stands apart. Thus, my aim is to analyse the Pre-Raphaelite movement in poetry which is no less interesting as the well-known paintings, using Rossetti’s poems as the chief material. I am going to analyse his most visual poems, some of his sonnets from The House of Life which I find most visually rich, and also his translation of Dante. I am also going to incorporate the major thought of his aesthetic stance expressed in his manifesto “The Hand and Soul” and its relevance for the understanding of his poetry and/or painting, as well as its relevance for the Pre-Raphaelite movement (or vice versa). The thesis can be expected to be submitted by the summer semester of 2012. |
| References |
| Preliminary list of secondary literature: Ed. by Derek Stanford. Pre-Raphaelite Writing: an anthology. London: J.M. Dent and Sons, 1973. Hunt, John Dixon. The Pre-Raphaelite Imagination 1848-1900. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968. Watkinson, Raymon. Pre-Raphaelite Art and Design. London: Studio Vista, 1970. Harding, James. The Pre-Raphaelites. New York: Rizzoli, 1977. Milton, Timothy. The Pre-Raphaelites. London: Thames and Hudson, 1974. Nicoll, John. The Pre-Raphaelites. London: Studio Vista, 1970. Lang, Cecil. The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Circle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975. Ed. by Michaela Giebelhausen and Tim Barringer. Writing the Pre-Raphaelites: text, context, subtext. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009. Howard, Ronnalie Roper. The Dark Glass: Vision and Technique in the Poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1972. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Poems and Translations 1850-1870: Together With the Prose Story “The Hand and Soul”. London: Oxford University Press, 1965. Stein, Richard Louis. The Ritual of Interpretation: The Fine Arts as Literature in Ruskin, Rossetti, and Pater. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975. Doughty, Oswald. A Victorian Romantic Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Oxford University Press, 1963. Bullen, J.B. The Pre-Raphaelite Body: Fear and Desire in Painting, Poetry, and Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Boas, F.S. Rossetti and His Poetry. London: Harrap, 1914. Faxon, Alicia Craig. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Oxford: Phaidon, 1989. Ed. by Hares-Stryker, Carolyn. An Anthology of Pre-Raphaelite Writings. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997. Ed. by Joseph Bristow. The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Armstrong, Isobel. Victorian Poetry: Poetry, Poetics and Politics. London: Routledge, 1993. Acton, Mary. Learning to Look at Paintings. London: Routledge, 1997. |
| Preliminary scope of work |
| My MA thesis is going to be concerned with Pre-Raphaelite poetry, more specifically with the poetry of Gabriel Dante Rossetti whose poems are interrelated with their representation in fine arts since Rossetti himself was a painter. Therefore his poems are closely related to his conception of the Pre-Raphaelite painting. I am going to explore the visual aspect of his poetry: not only the poems which have their visual counterpart in painting (such as The Blessed Damozel) but also those which only suggest a vivid pictorial representation. The major concern will be the literariness of a work of art and the visual aspect in literary works, the latter being of more relevance for my thesis. I have chosen this topic mainly because of my great interest in poetry and its aesthetic value, and secondarily because this field of research is not very well explored yet and deserves to be given some attention. This might, of course, pose some difficulties at obtaining relevant secondary literature for my thesis; yet I expect that this slight problem would not hinder my research as there are many available materials in online academic articles or in libraries either abroad or in other cities. I am going to analyse some of Rossetti’s poems which have been painted, alongside with the particular paintings as such (taking into consideration the possibility of reading the poem without having seen the painting, and also comparing the visual impact of the poem with the actual visual representation of it), then I shall also analyse literary aspects of other paintings of Rossetti’s which have not been written as a poem, and finally, which is going to be the chief concern of my thesis, I shall examine his poems which have a strong visual appeal on the reader and create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind without the aid of its physical representation in fine arts. This is going to be undertaken by close-reading of the poems and their consequent interpretation with regard to the structure, language, diction, literary representation of colours, shapes and movement; in short, the properties of a picture as they are represented by language in poetry and determine how these two media can approximate the quality of one another. I also shall attempt to suggest the rough description of the picture which the poems create during the process of reading of such visually appealing poems. Thus, I shall to compare the effects of a work of art in two modes of representation in three combinations: a poem versus painting; painting suggestive of a poem; poem suggestive of a painting; the latter one being the most important viewpoint. The language of a painting is going to be juxtaposed with the language of a poem, in the sense that the visual representation may or may not differ from the literary representation, taking into account the aesthetic of Pre-Raphaelite painting, its importance in poetry and Rossetti’s own concept of the movement. Rossetti, who was a painter and a poet, is therefore the best example on which I shall demonstrate how these two modes of representation can cooperate in a work of art, or perhaps each expressing something slightly different, whether it be a shift of emphasis on another aspect or some missing elements in each. The comparison of a poem and a painting is going to be based especially on the fact that both may complement each other if they are observed jointly; yet I shall examine what is missing if the visually charged poem (or the literary charged painting) stands apart. Thus, my aim is to analyse the Pre-Raphaelite movement in poetry which is no less interesting as the well-known paintings, using Rossetti’s poems as the chief material. I am going to analyse his most visual poems, some of his sonnets from The House of Life which I find most visually rich, and also his translation of Dante. I am also going to incorporate the major thought of his aesthetic stance expressed in his manifesto “The Hand and Soul” and its relevance for the understanding of his poetry and/or painting, as well as its relevance for the Pre-Raphaelite movement (or vice versa). The thesis can be expected to be submitted by the summer semester of 2012. |