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Upgrading Ekphrasis: Representations of Digital Space and Virtual Worlds in Contemporary Literature

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Upgrading Ekphrasis: Representations of Digital Space and Virtual Worlds in Contemporary Literature Upgrading Ekphrasis: Representations of Digital Space and Virtual Worlds in Contemporary Literature Nina Shiel Submitted for the award of PhD Dublin City University School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies Supervisor: Dr Brigitte Le Juez January 2015 I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of PhD is entirely my own work, and that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: _________________________ ID No:_______________ Date:_______________ Acknowledgements This thesis was engendered during a lecture by Dr Brigitte Le Juez in the second year of my part-time MA in Comparative Literature. As my supervisor, Brigitte has been everything I could have wished for and more: always supportive, always encouraging, always providing all kinds of opportunities, and yet never letting me get away with work that is in any way below my standard. A mere merci beaucoup seems insufficient for what has been a life- changing experience, but it is the only thing I have. The School of Applied Language and Intercultural studies have been very supportive during my degree and provided me with teaching opportunities – many thanks indeed. My project was funded for its three years by the Irish Research Council. I am immensely thankful for their generosity. Thank you to my father. Thank you to my mother for constant encouragement and to Drew for insisting that I am brilliant even when I myself think otherwise. Table of contents Introduction 1 Rationale 2 Research questions 7 Approach and methodology 9 Thesis structure 14 1. Critical review 16 1.1 Ekphrasis from the Classical Greece to the 21st century 17 1.2 From physical and mental space to virtual space 31 2. Building a virtual ekphrasis out of the changing Western word/image relationship 37 2.1 Word and image from Lessing to the arrival of the digital 39 2.2 Theories and definitions of the computer-generated virtual 47 2.3 Terminology of virtual worlds 50 2.4 Towards a virtual ekphrasis 57 2.5 When image becomes space 70 2.6 Representing the virtual in text: a practical methodology 79 3. Emergence of virtual worlds in reality and literature 83 3.1 Origins of the virtual in technology and imagination in the 1960s and the 1970s 84 3.2 The expanding horizons of the personal computer in the 1980s 88 3.3 The enthusiasm of the commercial internet of the 1990s 91 3.4 Consolidation of the virtual in the 21st century 95 4. The alien virtual in William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) 103 4.1 Creating a new space out of images through inspiration, influences and intertextuality 105 4.2 The first transformation: Case returns to cyberspace 113 4.3 The virtual as an uncanny space 118 4.4 The second and third transformation: Case’s awareness and choice 124 4.5 Ekphrasis in Neuromancer: transformation 138 5. The humanized virtual in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (1992) 140 5.1 Snow Crash as a response to the emerging digital culture 144 5.2 Ekphrasis of the virtual ‘metaphor’ 149 5.3 The ekphrastic dynamic in the virtual gaze 155 5.4 Ekphrasis in writing a dynamic picture 166 5.5 Ekphrasis in Snow Crash: metaphor 172 6. The everyday virtual in Charles Stross’s Halting State (2008) 174 6.1 Halting State as a response to technology and gaming 178 6.2 ‘Ekphrasis’ of the immersive second-person narrative 188 6.3 Sue: Looking into a virtual world through a window of ekphrasis 197 6.4 Elaine and Jack: Ekphrasis as immersion in the virtual 202 6.5 Ekphrasis in Halting State: immersion 215 Conclusion: A proposal for virtual ekphrasis 216 Research answers: principles of virtual ekphrasis 217 Implications for future research 230 ABSTRACT Nina Shiel Upgrading Ekphrasis: Representations of Digital Space and Virtual Worlds in Contemporary Literature This thesis will address the concept of ekphrasis from a new perspective: in the context of digital graphics. The focus of this thesis will lie in textual representations of computer- generated immersive and interactive graphical environments, or ‘virtual worlds’. This thesis will put forward an ekphrasis that is spurred by an emotional experience of a visual artwork that has a significant spatial aspect. It will be suggested that the viewer/user of such an artwork does not simply gaze from outside, but is incorporated into the digital artwork as an active participant through the immersive and interactive elements. Such a multisensory experience of an artwork has several effects on the dynamic between the viewer/user and the artwork, and, subsequently, also on the process of transmitting that experience to the readers via textual ekphrasis. Further, it will be seen that although digital technology has become commonplace, attitudes towards the virtual remain suspicious. In its discussion, this thesis will focus on three key texts: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (1992) and Charles Stross’s Halting State (2008). Finally, this thesis will put forward a proposal for the operation of 'virtual' ekphrasis through five interrelated principles: metaphor, separation, interface, participation and sharing. Introduction In 1955, Leo Spitzer used the term ‘ekphrasis’, known from Classical literature, to denote a poetic verbal description of a work of visual art. His paper found a place in the already existing scholarly discourse concerning the relationship between word and image. It originated a chain of academic debate, which has continued until this day. A rising interest in the term has been evident in a number of essays and monographs published in the past thirty years, as discussed in Chapter 1. A striking feature of the discourse on ekphrasis is the elusiveness of a commonly accepted definition of the term. Major scholars, such as Murray Krieger, W.J.T. Mitchell and James Heffernan have all proposed different interpretations. While the definition of ekphrasis put forward by Heffernan (1993: 3), ‘a verbal representation of a visual representation’, seems to have achieved a wider popularity, it is by no means a comprehensive definition. Recently, Classical scholar Ruth Webb has argued that the modern emphasis on the visual artwork is misguided and that original Classical definition referred to any visual scene vividly and emotionally described in words. The difficulty in reaching an agreed definition of ekphrasis has had two notable effects. Firstly, it means that dissemination, particularly to non-experts on ekphrasis, is made more difficult. New scholarly works on ekphrasis cannot rely on the audience to understand the concept well, as ekphrasis tends to be little known outside the expertises of poetry and visual and textual studies. In order to discuss ekphrasis in a way that can reach wider academic audiences, new works must review previous scholarship to a greater detail than usual, in order to ensure that the contested definition is presented in as clear terms as possible. This restriction leads to the second point. Due to the lack of a common definition and the resulting necessity to return over and over again to the previous scholarship, ekphrasis is not applied in analysis as much as it likely could be. Further, its theoretical considerations have not yet been fully developed in context of the recent developments of contemporary visual culture, an increasing portion of which is produced and consumed by digital means. 1 This thesis will address the concept of ekphrasis from a new angle. In order to advance the concept another step in its considerable historical chain, which reaches, in different guises, from ancient Greece to the present day, this thesis proposes a consideration of ekphrasis in the context of digital graphics. The specific focus will lie in textual representations of computer-generated immersive and interactive graphical environments. This thesis will put forward an ekphrasis that is spurred by the actual or notional experience of a visual artwork with a significant spatial aspect: the viewer of such an artwork does not simply gaze from outside, but is incorporated into the artwork as an active participant through the immersive and interactive elements. It will be suggested that such an experience of an artwork has several effects on the dynamic between the viewer and the artwork and, subsequently, on the process of transmitting that experience to the readers via ekphrasis. Rationale The growth of interest in ekphrasis over the past decades coincides with a general increase of visuality in society. Jay Bolter (1996, 2001) has discussed the growing dominance of space by images in favour of text in newspapers, magazines and other media. This process, identified by him in the second half of the 1990s, has subsequently sped up even further with the advent and rapid expansion of digital media. Bolter has observed that the visuality of the new media informs the change towards greater visuality in the ‘old’ media, which is struggling to compete with the digital. Even earlier, shortly after the internet had first become available to the general public, Mitchell (1994) coined the concept of a ‘pictorial turn’, a new interest in the visual in the public culture and in academic discourse. Central to the concept was the notion that spectatorship could be as important and as complex a matter as reading. An image does not stand alone, but its meaning is intrinsically connected to its medium, related institutions, existing discourse, the notion of the body and general attitudes concerning representation.
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