Ekphrasis, Sense of Place and Topophilia = Topoaesthesis

I'm trying to get my head round the critical side of this thesis, interspersing that with writing the novel. After a walk down the canal, I went into Stuart Crystal, found some postcards:

So, I've been looking up research on ekphrasis, which means, in short, the creative effect of, for example, a visual image (ie: you might see an image and want to write a poem/short story/novel/song etc. But equally, you might hear a song and want to paint an image.)

Now, In Sten Pultz Moslund’s Toward an Embodied Topopoetic Mode of Reading (in Tally, Robert T. ed (2011) Geocritical Explorations: Space, Place and Mapping in Literary and Cultural Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, USA, p29-43) there is a reference to David Damrosch’s view of ‘world literature as a mode of reading is sometimes talked about as a “form of detached engagement” and in order for a work to “achieve a successful life as world literature,” it must be easy to delocalize: its “cultural assumptions” must travel well rather than being steeped in “regional realism.”’ (p.30) In his article, Moslund sketches a geocritical approach to literature – what he refers to as a ‘topopoetic mode of reading that revives the power of palatial experiences in literature.’(p30) He further explains that this is about ‘reading not for the plot but for the setting, where the setting of the story is not reduced to an expendable passive or ornamental backdrop for the story’s action. Rather, place is experienced as one of the primary events of the story and any action is experienced as being shaped, at least partially, by the event of place.’ (p30).

BUT, that is about reading.

What I am trying to do is to is formulate a writerly idea about this.

Look at this quote from Krauth & Bowman:

‘We claim that the ordinary process of writing involves ekphrasis: that ekphrasis is not restricted to the special situation where an art image inspires a textual work; rather, that the production of a mental image occurs in many kinds of writing situations and that the transfer of its evocative emotional presence from one mind (the writer’s) to another (the reader’s) is a key part of the writing process generally in all forms – fiction, poetry, nonfiction etc.’ (pp12-13, Krauth, N., and Christopher Bowman (2018) Ekphrasis and the writing process, New Writing, 15:1, 11-30) ‘To excel at ekphrasis, the writer had to perfect the transfer of an image created from reality in their own mind, to the mind of another.’ P13. ‘Paradoxically, ekphrasis can also be dramatic, using the art object to construct a developing action – thus taking to an extreme, the narrative ekphrasis. And, beyond this, the device can become an ur-ekphrasis, existing as a concept of ekphrasis in a character’s mind ... thus foregrounding the process of artistic creation. (de Armas 2005, 21–23, italics added, in p13.) de Armas, Frederick A. 2005. “Simple Magic: Ekphrasis From Antiquity to the Age of Cervantes.” In Ekphrasis in the Age of Cervantes, edited by F. A. de Armas, 13–31. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.

Stephen King refers to it as ‘telepathy’: Stephen King in On Writing (2000) describes telepathy as ‘what writing is’, and follows with a concise description of a table with a red tablecloth. On the table is a cage, and in the cage is a white rabbit munching a carrot-stub. The numeral 8 is marked on the rabbit’s back in blue ink:

‘It’s an eight. This is what we’re looking at, and we all see it ... We’re not even in the same year together, let alone the same room ... except we are together. We’re close. We’re having a meeting of the minds. I sent you a table with a red cloth on it, a cage, a rabbit, and the number eight in blue ink. You got them all, especially that blue eight. We’ve engaged in an act of telepathy.’ (King 2000, 78–79) King, Stephen. 2000. On Writing. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

This is King describing the transfer of the image from writer to reader – the ekphrastic act. Susan Lovell refers to ‘The special feature of an ekphratic [sic] method in biography is that it consciously strives for this portal experience to generate presence, collapse time, encourage the reader’s empathic imagination, and generate an embodied experience of the subject’s lived reality via the narrative. (Lovell 2013, 274) Lovell, Sue. 2013. “Ekphrasis as an Analytical Mode in Biography: Finding Vida Lahey’s Romantic “Character”.” A/b: Auto/Biography Studies 28 (2): 272–295. doi:10.1080/08989575.2013.10846830

BUT… What I’m talking about is not the way in which ekphrasis works on the reader, but how it is processed by the writer, which is a subtly different thing.

The word 'ekphrasis' comes from the Greek for the description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical exercise. In other words, it is a word that describes the outcome, rather than the process, it would seem. Add to this the concept of sense of place as part of a wide body of literature that addresses the emotional, symbolic and spiritual aspects of places. Yi-Fu Tuan was generally credited with re-kindling academic interest in the concept with his 1974 book: Topophilia: a study of environmental perception, attitudes, and values. The term 'topophilia' also comes from the Greek roots topo- (place) and –philia (love of/for) and means literally, love of place, but Tuan (1974) defined the term widely so as “to include all emotional connections between physical environment and human beings" (p.2). Taking into account all this: ekphrasis, sense of place, topophilia and Moslund's ‘reading not for the plot but for the setting, where the setting of the story is not reduced to an expendable passive or ornamental backdrop for the story’s action. Rather, place is experienced as one of the primary events of the story and any action is experienced as being shaped, at least partially, by the event of place.’ (p30), it strikes me that, as a writer, the notion of topoaethesis (topo = place, aethesis = sensation of) might be the both the origin and effect of the writing I'm trying to complete.