Ekphrasis is the art of describing works of art, the verbal representation of visual representation. Profoundly ambivalent, ekphrastic poetry celebrates the power of the silent image even as it tries to circumscribe that power with the authority of the word. Over the ages its practitioners have created a museum of words about real and imaginary paintings and sculptures. In the first book ever to explore this museum, James Heffernan argues that ekphrasis stages a battle for mastery between the image and the word. Moving from the epics of Homer, Virgil, and Dante to contemporary American poetry, this book treats the history of struggle between rival systems of representation. Readable and well illustrated, this study of how poets have represented painting and sculpture is a major contribution to our understanding of the relation between the arts.

Museum of Words: The Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery

Literature & Fiction

Heffernan, James A.W.

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

Ekphrasis is the art of describing works of art, the verbal representation of visual representation. Profoundly ambivalent, ekphrastic poetry celebrates the power of the silent image even as it tries to circumscribe that power with the authority of the word. Over the ages its practitioners have created a museum of words about real and imaginary paintings and sculptures. In the first book ever to explore this museum, James Heffernan argues that ekphrasis stages a battle for mastery between the image and the word. Moving from the epics of Homer, Virgil, and Dante to contemporary American poetry, this book treats the history of struggle between rival systems of representation. Readable and well illustrated, this study of how poets have represented painting and sculpture is a major contribution to our understanding of the relation between the arts.

In works of Western literature ranging from Homer’s Odyssey to Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the giving and taking of hospitality is sometimes pleasurable, but more often perilous. Heffernan traces this leitmotiv through the history of our greatest writings, including Christ’s Last Supper, Macbeth’s murder of his royal guest, and Camus’s short story on French colonialism in Arab Algeria. By means of such examples and many more, this book considers what literary hosts, hostesses, and guests do to as well as for each other. In doing so, it shows how often treachery rends the fabric of trust that hospitality weaves.

Hospitality and Treachery in Western Literature

Yale University Press

Writing, a college handbook

Reference

Words, Language & Grammar

Norton

Instructor's manual, Writing, a college handbook and Writing, a college workbook

Book by Heffernan, James A. W., Lincoln, John E.

Guide to the New MLA Style of Documentation for Users of Writting a College Handbook

Lincoln, John E.

W.W.Norton&Company

An introductory textbook for students taking classes in composition and creative writing. It includes sections in invention, rhetoric, grammar and research. A workbook containing exercises is also available.

Writing, a College Handbook

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

An introductory textbook for students taking classes in composition and creative writing. It includes sections in invention, rhetoric, grammar and research. A workbook containing exercises is also available.

Writing: A College Workbook (Ancillary for Writing: A College Handbook)

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Writing a College Handbook 3ED

Norton*(ww Norton Co

Writing: A College Handbook

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

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Books by Heffernan, James A.W.