James Cisneros, Queen's University, Canada.

ekphrasis

« The most systematic reflection on the role of ekphrasis in the relation between the arts, or between the media is perhaps Lessing’s Laocoon, an essay on the limits of painting and poetry. A turn to Lessing’s Laocoon offers a heuristic look at the institutional complex the concept intermédialité aims to overcome. Whether in the name of taste, morality or good form, Lessing’s essay on the limits of painting and poetry is firm declaration on the need to establish differences between the arts and the media or between different arts and different media. So he comes up with his famous dictum that “time is the province of poetry” and that “space is the province of painting”. “Bodies are the true subject of painting” and “actions are the true subject of poetry”. The epic poet delivers actions that are of narrative consequence and that do not digress towards static images that still the motion of bodies. »