Pictorialist Poetics: Poetry and the Visual Arts in Nineteenth-Century France (Cambridge Studies in French, Series Number 21)

by David H.T. Scott

This book offers a comprehensive description of how writers, in particular poets in nineteenth-century France, became increasingly aware of the visual element in writing from the point of view both of content and of the formal organisation of the words in the text. This interest encouraged writers such as Baudelaire, Mallarme and Rimbaud to recreate in language some of the vivid, sensual impact of the graphic or painterly image. This was to be achieved by organising texts according to aesthetic criteria so that as far as possible the form of the text as visually perceived would be closely interrelated to its content as reconstructed through the reading process. The result of this development was a radical redefinition of the scope and function of poetry, raising important general questions about the nature of the relationship between language and the visual image that are still very much of concern today.

Genres: Poetry

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 29, 1988

About the author

David Scott holds a personal chair in French (Textual & Visual Studies) at Trinity College Dublin. He has written widely on literature, painting, semiotics and textual/ visual studies, and has organised many international exhibitions on arts and design. He was formerly curator of the Modern Art Collection, Trinity College Dublin (1977-92), a director of the Douglas Hyde Gallery (1979-91) and the organizer of Trinity College’s 1992 400th anniversary exhibition. His interests include gardens, travel and sport, especially athletics and boxing.

Reviews

[Jorge Luiz Antonio]

David Scott made a panoramic and excellent study on the relationship of poetry and painting in France. This is a book to be read for it helps to understand the beginning of visual poetry in the world.