Verbal-Visual Configurations in Postcolonial Literature

Birgit Neumann (MA, University of Cologne; PhD, University of Giessen) is Chair of Anglophone Literatures and Translation Studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. She previously held positions at the universities of Giessen, Münster and Passau and was Visiting Professor at the universities of Cornell (USA), Madison-Wisconsin (USA) and Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge (UK). She is a member of a number of international research networks and an elected member of the Academy of Europe, of the Coordinating Committee for the Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages (CHLEL) and of the Advisory Board of the "Centre for Comparative Studies", University of Lisbon. She is co-editor of book series on cultural memory (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht), on cultural translation (Narr) and on English and American literatures (Brill). Her research engages with the poetics and politics of Anglophone world literatures, cultural translation, intermediality and postcolonial ecocriticism. She is the author of books on Canadian fictions of memory (2005) and on nationalism in 18th-century British literature (2009). She has edited and co-edited a range of volumes and special issues, including collections on Exotic Things in the 18th-century (2015), A History of British Poetry (2015), British TV Comedies – Cultural Concepts, Contexts and Controversies (2105), Cultures of Emotion in 18th-century Britain (2015), Anglophone World Literatures (2017), Postcolonial Ecocriticism and Anglophone Literatures (2017), Global Literary Histories (2018) as well as on the 21st-century Anglophone Novel (2019). Gabriele Rippl (MA University of Constance; PhD University of Constance) is Full Professor and Chair of Literatures in English at the University of Berne and Director of the Department of English. Trained in English, American and German Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the Universities of Constance and Bristol, she previously held positions at the University of Constance and Göttingen and was Visiting Professor/Scholar at the Universities of Bern, Zürich, Fribourg, Cambridge, Brighton, UCLA and London (Ontario). She is a member of a number of international research networks, of the Swiss National Research Council, of several other SNSF committees as well as of AcademiaNet (European Expert Database of Outstanding Female Academics). She serves as co-editor of Anglia. Journal of English Philology, the Anglia Book Series and the De Gruyter series Handbooks of English and American Studies. Text and Theory. In addition, she is on the advisory boards of Interfaces, Amerikastudien/American Studies and the Journal for the Study of British Cultures. Her research is currently dedicated to the study of intermediality and ekphrasis in Anglophone transcultural literature, canon formation, cultural sustainability, as well as 20th- and 21st-century Anglophone life writing. Among her major publications are: Anglophone World Literatures (2017, co-edited); Handbook of Intermediality (2015, edited); Handbuch Kanon und Wertung (2013, co-edited); Haunted Narratives: Life Writing in an Age of Trauma (2013, co-edited); Imagescapes: Studies in Intermediality (2010, co-edited); Beschreibungs-Kunst (2005, authored) and Lebenstexte (1998, authored).Both authors are involved in various international academic associations (ICLA, ACLA, MLA, IAWIS, EASLCES, IAUPE, DGfA, Deutscher Anglistenverband, SANAS, SAUTE, Gesellschaft für Kanadastudien, CHLEL, German Society of 18th-Century Studies) and have acted as reviewers for a number of international research foundations.

• 1 Introduction: The Art and Power of Seeing in Postcolonial Contexts 2 Intermedial Aesthetics in Postcolonial Contexts: Transcultural Contests, Contact Zones and Translations2. 1 State of the Art: Theoretical Approaches to Word-Image Configurations in NarrativeLiterature2. 2 Intermediality Research2. 3 Ekphrasis2. 4 Visuality, Ekphrasis and Postcolonial Theory2. 5 Battles against and Encounters with Otherness2. 6 Verbal-Visual Configurations: Practices of Translation 2. 7 The Politics of Visuality and the Gaze 3 Visuality and the Ethics of Seeing: Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient 3. 1 Visuality and Ethics – Some Philosophical Perspectives 3. 2 Re-visioning History in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (1992)3. 3 Mapping Processes and the Colonial Gaze 3. 4 Ekphrases – Transcultural Solidarities3. 5 Partial Points of View and the ‘Multiplication of the Eyes’ 3. 6 Visibilities, Invisibilities and "Reserves of Alterities" 4 Renegotiating Frames and Visibility in David Dabydeen’s A Harlot’s Progress 4. 1 Hogarth’s and Dabydeen’s Blacks4. 2 "Can the Subaltern Speak?" And Can the Subaltern See? – Configurations of Voice andVision in Dabydeen’s Fiction 4. 3 A Harlot’s Progress (1985): Navigating the Imagery of 18th-century Britain 4. 4 Challenging Visual Transparency in A Harlot’s Progress 4. 5 Looking beyond the Frame 4. 6 Arts, Commerce and Appropriation 4. 7 The Predicament of Representing Black Subjectivities 5 Salman Rushdie’s Entangled Histories, Travelling Images and Alternative Visions of the Secular Modern Nation-State in Midnight’s Children, The Moor’s Last Sigh and The Enchantress of Florence 5. 1 Salman Rushdie’s Intermedial Aesthetic and Indian Visual5. 2 Negotiating Postcolonial Identities: Ekphrasis as Counter-Reading in Midnight’s Children (1981)5. 3 Rushdie’s Ekphrastic Hope: The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995) 5. 4 The Power of Painting and Ekphrasis: The Enchantress of Florence (2008) 5. 5 Ekphrasis and Ethics6 Derek Walcott’s "Twin Heads": Postcolonial Ekphrasis and Counter-Visions in Tiepolo’s Hound 6. 1 Derek Walcott: Navigating the Interstices between Visual and Verbal Art 6. 2 ‘The Art of Seeing’ 6. 3 Contesting Origins and Originals: ‘Lime trees trying to be olives’ 6. 4 Re-Visioning Impressionism, Provincialising Europe 6. 5 Possibilities and Limits of a Caribbean Aesthetics 6. 6 Walcott’s Painterly Re-Visions6. 7 Toward a New World Aesthetics and Ethics of Seeing6. 8 Double Visions, Caribbean Re-Vision and ‘Seeing Shadows’ 7 Serial Intermediality: Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy and See Now Then 7. 1 Postcolonial Subject Positions: Repetition with a Difference7. 2 Photography and Seriality in Lucy (1990)7. 3 Repetition and Ekphrasis in See Now Then (2013)8 Monstrous Alterity: The Intermedial Aesthetics of Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red 8. 1 Word-Image Configurations in Anne Carson’s Oeuvre8. 2 Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (1998)8. 3 Geryon’s Autobiographical Project: Sculpture – Writing – Photography8. 4 Radicalising Ekphrasis9 ‘African’ and ‘American’ Ekphrases: NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names 9. 1 The Intensity of Impression in Bulawayo’s We Need New Names (2013)9. 2 Darling’s Art of Description9. 3 Africa in the Western Mass Media9. 4 ‘African’ Ekphrases9. 5 ‘American’ Ekphrases9. 6 Visual Contact Zones10 Global Media Cultures, Travelling Images and Transcultural Ekphrasis in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of A Yellow Sun 10. 1 Rebalancing Stories in a Globalised World 10. 2 Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) – Re-Membering the Nigerian Civil War10. 3 Transcultural Ekphrases: Igbo-Ukwu Art and Photography 10. 4 War Photography and the Voyeuristic Gaze in Western Media 10. 5 Intermedial Encounters – The Roped Pot as a Narrative Principle 11 Reflections and Refractions of Contemporary Media Cultures in Teju Cole’s Every Day Is for the Thief and Open City11. 1 Convergence Culture and Social Linking 11. 2 Verbal-Visual Configurations in Teju Cole’s Every Day Is for the Thief (2007/2014a) – Plays of In-Between-Ness11. 3 Re-visioning Travel Writing: Peripatetic Viewing and Lagos’ "non-linear nature" 11. 4 ‘The Empty Frame’ – Moments of Absence 11. 5 The Ethics and Affects of Visual Practices 11. 6 Restructuring Nigerian Visual Cultures: Photography in Every Day Is for the Thief 11. 7 Ekphrasis in the Digital Age: Open City (2011) 11. 8 New York: Painting and Architecture11. 9 Brussels: Monuments and Global Communication11. 10 Back in New York City: Photography11. 11 Blind Spots12 Conclusion