In the Midst of Chaos There Was Shape”
Formalist Aesthetics and Ekphrasis in To the Lighthouse
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12948274 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kehan Liu (0000-0001-7649-9037, Beijing Jiaotong University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 145-161 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American, British and Canadian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1841-1487 • E-ISSN: 1841-964X |
| Publisher | De Gruyter Open (PUBLISHER • PL) |
| DOI | 10.2478/abcsj-2023-0023 |
| OpenAlex | W4391251592 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
This essay focuses on the influence of Fry’s formalist principles on To the Lighthouse , but additionally proposes a reorientation of reading that argues for Woolf’s modifications of formalism, which is concretized as the reconciliation of formalism and everyday life, where everyday life is specified as Woolf’s notion of “moments of being.” The essay contends that such a reconciliation is facilitated by representation and thus adopts James Heffernan’s theory of ekphrasis to analyse Lily Briscoe’s painting. Drawing on Heffernan’s definitions of ekphrasis, this essay regards the formalist elements in Lily’s picture as representational but not pictorial, whereas the object represented in Lily’s picture – in the text, Mrs. Ramsay – is of second-degree representationality, which spells out as intimacy and unity in terms of human relations. With intimacy and unity as core values in her mind, Lily eventually manages to represent Mrs. Ramsay’s being until “there she sat.”
Aesthetics · Art · CHAOS (operating system · Computer Science · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Philosophy · Photography and Visual Culture · Visual Culture and Art Theory
| Highly cited | No |
|---|