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This study investigates the capacity of Shakespeare’s texts – obviously destined for stage performances – to generate mental images and mental colours. Jean-Louis Claret, both a Shakespeare professor at Aix-Marseille University and an illustrator, proposes to shed light on the process that leads from the written text to visual illustration.
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About This Book
This study investigates the capacity of Shakespeare’s texts – obviously destined for stage performances – to generate images and mental colours in the readers’ and in the spectators’ minds. Such notions as Ut pictura poesis and the paragoneare discussed in the first part of this book, along with the function and nature of colours. After discussing the sets of correspondences and the major differences between texts and images, the author presents and analyzes some of his own illustrations of Shakespearean characters. Jean-Louis Claret, both a university professor specialized in Shakespeare’s theatre and an illustrator, proposes to shed light on the process that led him from the perusal of the written text to the visualization of visages. The voice of poets is unconventionally called upon to shed light on the complex mechanisms he describes.
The second part of this book deals with an analysis of the author’s illustrations. As a university scholar, Jean-Louis Claret has naturally fed on literary criticism, but he tries nonetheless to put forth original approaches to Shakespeare. The use of poets’ voices in his demonstration contributes to the development of an original and innovative contribution to Shakespearean criticism. The illustrator traces in the texts the sparks that his mind fanned into mental images which he strove in turn to make into visual pictures. He tries to determine how textual elements (the mention of colours, details, names, etc.) can generate visions, and he devotes special attention to the effect of sound correspondences and prosody.
Poetry is given pride of place in this book that focuses on the power of words and on the mechanisms of evocation that affect both readers and theatregoers.
Reviews
“In this deeply inventive, moving book, Jean-Louis Claret takes stock of forty years of passionate research on Shakespearean drama, offering a touchstone for a new literary humanism that treats Shakespeare’s texts as ‘invaluable manuals for life’. Picturing Shakespeare unveils how the generative capacity of Shakespeare’s visual language gives rise to mental performances, theatrical incarnations and pictorial illustrations.” —Marguerite A. Tassi, Professor of English, University of Nebraska, USA.
Author Information
Jean-Louis Claret is Associate Professor at Aix-Marseille University, France, where he teaches Elizabethan drama. He is also an illustrator specialized in the representation of Shakespearean characters.
Series
Anthem Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture
Table of Contents
List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Foreword by François-Xavier P. Gleyzon; Critical Gesture: Preface to a Poetics of the Image; Introduction; 1. Dramatic Texts and Images; 2. The Drawings; Conclusion: A Lesson in Love; Bibliography; Index
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