Les Enjeux ekphrastiques de la montagne à l’époque romantique

The notion of Ekphrasis is here enlarged to include the reciprocal creation of text by image and image by text, a discourse that both states what it sees, and makes us see; in itself a transhistoric process necessarily assuming historical contents, in the present case Romantic ones. A paradigmatic c...

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Main Author: Michel Morel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires du Midi 2008-05-01
Series:Anglophonia
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/acs/1116
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author Michel Morel
author_facet Michel Morel
author_sort Michel Morel
collection DOAJ
description The notion of Ekphrasis is here enlarged to include the reciprocal creation of text by image and image by text, a discourse that both states what it sees, and makes us see; in itself a transhistoric process necessarily assuming historical contents, in the present case Romantic ones. A paradigmatic change in values occurs at the time, the sense of discrepancy of which allows one to become aware of what is inevitably hidden by the common run of things. Indeed, a unified thematic prevails, clearly evinced in four extracts selected from contemporary works: a) The Prelude (Wordsworth); b) The Mysteries of Udolpho (Mrs Radcliffe); c) Waverley (Scott); d) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley). Their versions of mountains seem to belong to a clichéd contemporary discourse, the outlook of the first three being more retrospective, while the fourth tends to the prospective. What is at stake is a fascination tainted with fear, even horror (the sublime): an archetypal experience, here anatomised by Wordsworth, whose fundamentals are somehow shifted in terms of axiology—from the negative to the positive— in Frankenstein. The ekphrastic mediation thus serves as a catalyst for a whole contemporary culture seized in its very mutation, at the same time as it foregrounds the other fundamental dimension of mountains, the illumination and the sense of distance promised, if not granted, to the climber, in the here and now
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spelling doaj-art-6d645b6cbe144f8d8d357b52ae043ed42025-01-30T12:33:44ZengPresses Universitaires du MidiAnglophonia1278-33312427-04662008-05-0123637010.4000/caliban.1116Les Enjeux ekphrastiques de la montagne à l’époque romantiqueMichel MorelThe notion of Ekphrasis is here enlarged to include the reciprocal creation of text by image and image by text, a discourse that both states what it sees, and makes us see; in itself a transhistoric process necessarily assuming historical contents, in the present case Romantic ones. A paradigmatic change in values occurs at the time, the sense of discrepancy of which allows one to become aware of what is inevitably hidden by the common run of things. Indeed, a unified thematic prevails, clearly evinced in four extracts selected from contemporary works: a) The Prelude (Wordsworth); b) The Mysteries of Udolpho (Mrs Radcliffe); c) Waverley (Scott); d) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley). Their versions of mountains seem to belong to a clichéd contemporary discourse, the outlook of the first three being more retrospective, while the fourth tends to the prospective. What is at stake is a fascination tainted with fear, even horror (the sublime): an archetypal experience, here anatomised by Wordsworth, whose fundamentals are somehow shifted in terms of axiology—from the negative to the positive— in Frankenstein. The ekphrastic mediation thus serves as a catalyst for a whole contemporary culture seized in its very mutation, at the same time as it foregrounds the other fundamental dimension of mountains, the illumination and the sense of distance promised, if not granted, to the climber, in the here and nowhttps://journals.openedition.org/acs/1116WordsworthAnn RadcliffeWalter ScottMary ShelleyTurnerromantisme
spellingShingle Michel Morel
Les Enjeux ekphrastiques de la montagne à l’époque romantique
Anglophonia
Wordsworth
Ann Radcliffe
Walter Scott
Mary Shelley
Turner
romantisme
title Les Enjeux ekphrastiques de la montagne à l’époque romantique
title_full Les Enjeux ekphrastiques de la montagne à l’époque romantique
title_fullStr Les Enjeux ekphrastiques de la montagne à l’époque romantique
title_full_unstemmed Les Enjeux ekphrastiques de la montagne à l’époque romantique
title_short Les Enjeux ekphrastiques de la montagne à l’époque romantique
title_sort les enjeux ekphrastiques de la montagne a l epoque romantique
topic Wordsworth
Ann Radcliffe
Walter Scott
Mary Shelley
Turner
romantisme
url https://journals.openedition.org/acs/1116
work_keys_str_mv AT michelmorel lesenjeuxekphrastiquesdelamontagnealepoqueromantique