This Friday I will present a paper at a conference in Lund:
‘A Visual Sense is Born in the Fingertips’. Towards a Definition of Ekphrasis for the Digital Age
This paper aims at rethinking the concept of ekphrasis with a special focus on how digital technology shapes, transforms and reconfigures the dynamic relationship between word and image. According to Ruth Webb in her Ekphrasis, Imagination and Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory and Practice (2009), the ancient and rhetorical practice of ekphrasis and the concept used in modern literary criticism belong to fundamentally different systems. The ancient definition emphasizes enargeia and the impact on the listener. The visual referent is less important. The modern definition of the term, developed for the analysis of written texts, engages with the visual mainly as referent. In this paper the significance of the ancient definition of ekphrasis will be re-examined through digital art and electronic literature. It will be argued that the ekphrasis of the digital age, with its emphasis on enargeia and on the viewer/reader/user-bodily interaction with the work of art convey an aesthetic of tactility. Also to be discussed is how deeply rooted the notion of ekphrasis is in print based texutality.
