Circumscribing the horizon in Jane Urquhart's 'The Underpainter'

This paper discusses the ongoing preoccupation of Canadian novelist Jane Urquhart with the influence of the visual arts on sensitivity, and, more specifically, the anxiety regarding the primacy of vision that permeates 'The Underpainter' (1997). In this ekphrastic novel, Urquhart's tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Commonwealth (Rodez, France) France), 2010-09, Vol.33 (1), p.93-104
Main Author: Letessier, Anne-Sophie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Boundaries
Composition
Cubism
Cultural heritage
Experiments
Humanities and Social Sciences
Intimacy
Literature
Paints
Social aspects
Visual arts
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This paper discusses the ongoing preoccupation of Canadian novelist Jane Urquhart with the influence of the visual arts on sensitivity, and, more specifically, the anxiety regarding the primacy of vision that permeates 'The Underpainter' (1997). In this ekphrastic novel, Urquhart's treatment of the pictorial motif of the horizon engages the reader in a reflection on the very foundations of representation, in turn raising questions about the politics of the gaze underlying a painter's work.
ISSN:0395-6989
DOI:10.4000/ces.8319