Facing and Ekphrastic encounters: interrelation and intersubjectivity

Abstract

This PhD consists of a creative manuscript, Facing, and a critical component, Ekphrastic Encounters: Interrelation and Intersubjectivity.

Facing is an ekphrastic poetry collection, comprising poems which respond to paintings. The collection is concerned with the act of looking and the limits of perception, formally explored through changes of perspective; other core preoccupations include embodiment, selfhood, and the examination and interrogation of creative practice. Facing is further unified by its exploration of ekphrasis as a mode. I use the initial encounter with the paintings as a starting point and a departure point simultaneously, allowing associations to unfold freely. My aim is not to reproduce the paintings I engage with; instead, I inquire into how the encounter with a work of art can function similarly to formal constraints: by preventing specific choices, it can allow for the emergence of surprising possibilities.

In my critical essay, Ekphrastic Encounters: Interrelation and Intersubjectivity, I argue for the advantages of considering ekphrastic practice in terms of encounter, and I explore the possibilities of connection it enables. After an introduction outlining the history and critical context of ekphrastic poetry, my first chapter examines intersubjectivity in John Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”, focusing specifically on Ashbery’s use of apostrophe and his continually shifting deixis. My second chapter explores collaboration and shared influences in two works by painter Alison Watt and poet Don Paterson, Phantom and Hiding in Full View. I conclude with a discussion of how the two components of my thesis influenced each other.