123041 PS Proseminar Literature (2012S)

This introductory seminar will look at literary texts dealing with art and will explore the ways in which art has inspired the literary imagination. Apart from analysing the concept of art and the artist as reflected in a variety of genres from different periods of time this course will pay attention to the historical and cultural contexts in which these texts have been embedded. Essays by influential Victorian art critics like John Ruskin or Walter Pater will serve as an introduction. The complex relationship of literature and art will be highlighted by discussing topics like ekphrasis or imagism and by looking at the interface of verbal and visual modes of representation.