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Creative Writing Practice of Ekphrastic Intervention: A Case Study of Literary Responses to A Blind Girl Reading by Ejnar Nielsen

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Abstract

This chapter aims to shed light onto the world-building strategies employed in writing a literary response to an art prompt, a creative writing practice commonly known as ekphrasis. My case study of contemporary ekphrastic responses explores the stylistic manifestations of writerly interventions into a visual scene by drawing on Text World Theory (Gavins, Text World Theory: An Introduction, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2007; Werth, Text Worlds: Representing Conceptual Space in Discourse, London, Longman, 1999). Hence, this research presents two significant contributions. Firstly, I propose to expand the application of Text World Theory “beyond senses” to the analysis of any mode of communication processed in the mind. Secondly, I suggest a novel approach to analysing writing in response to art—a model of ekphrastic intervention, in which I compartmentalise the language features of an interrelation (Mason, Intertextuality in Practice, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 2019) within ekphrasis that transpire the varying degrees of conceptual distance between an image and its literary rendition.

It may be that we are little writers, but writers of a kind we must surely be.

—Carter and Nash (Seeing Through Language: A Guide to Styles of English Writing, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990, 174)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For further details on the theory of enactivism, see Varela et al. 1993; and, in this collection, Nuttall (Chap. 7).

  2. 2.

    The analysed collection of ekphrastic responses can be accessed at https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/selected-responses-ejnar-nielsen-challenge.

  3. 3.

    All cited poems are available at the official website of The Ekphrastic Review journal. To honour the creative writers whose work I will be discussing, I provide a short summary of the bio that they have submitted alongside their ekphrastic response. The poem “Retina” is written by Barbara Ponomareff, a retired child psychotherapist and a creative writer who is pursuing her life-long interest in literature and art.

  4. 4.

    The poem “Room Mopes” is written by Sana Tamreen Mohammed, a creative writer and a published poet.

  5. 5.

    The poem “A Book Rests” is written by Alison R Reed, a published poet and a winner of the Writers’ Bureau poetry competition (2020).

  6. 6.

    The poem “Blind Girl Reading” is written by Karen A VandenBos, a healthcare professional who is exploring creative writing in her retirement.

  7. 7.

    The short story “Agneta’s Journals” is written by James C. Howell, a published fiction writer with an interest in non-typical, surreal fiction.

  8. 8.

    The microfiction “Autodidact” is written by Bayveen O’Connell, a widely published creative writer and a nominee for Best Microfiction prize (2019).

  9. 9.

    The critical response “Blind Girl Reading 1905” is written by Victoria LeBlanc, a visual artist and an art critic who is inspired by the intersections of painting and writing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aston University, Birmingham, UK

    Polina Gavin

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  1. Polina Gavin
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  1. LERMA, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Linda Pillière

  2. EMMA, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Sandrine Sorlin

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Gavin, P. (2024). Creative Writing Practice of Ekphrastic Intervention: A Case Study of Literary Responses to A Blind Girl Reading by Ejnar Nielsen. In: Pillière, L., Sorlin, S. (eds) Style and Sense(s). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54884-0_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54884-0_11

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