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Dimensions of Iconicity
Edited by Angelika Zirker, Matthias Bauer, Olga Fischer and Christina Ljungberg
[Iconicity in Language and Literature 15] 2017
► pp. 135–150

Ekphrasis, cognition, and iconicity

An analysis of W. D. Snodgrass’s “Van Gogh: ‘The Starry Night’”

| West Chester University of Pennsylvania

The paper examines the relationship between iconicity and ekphrasis from the viewpoint of cognitive poetics and literary stylistics. Cognitive poetics draws on cognitive linguistics, literary linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience to explore the relationship between the creation and interpretation of literary texts and the workings of the human mind. The following analysis focuses on W. D. Snodgrass’s ekphrastic poem “Van Gogh: ‘The Starry Night’” and explores how readers are invited to mentally reconstruct van Gogh’s painting. A close reading of the text demonstrates how the poem mirrors the explosive imagery of the night sky and contrasts it with the serene atmosphere of the village. Moreover, the analysis considers how Snodgrass attempts to reconcile the visual and the verbal media so as to present them as working in unison and enable readers to experience the painting.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.An image of the village
  • 3.The sky
  • 4.An “imaginative leap”
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.15.08pan
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Lugea, Jane
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Panagiotidou, Maria-Eirini
2022. Ekphrasis: Past and Present. In The Poetics of Ekphrasis, ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
Panagiotidou, Maria-Eirini
2022. Representation and Narrativization in Ekphrasis. In The Poetics of Ekphrasis, ► pp. 85 ff. DOI logo
Panagiotidou, Maria-Eirini
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