Tehnologija ekfraze
Exfusion technology

visual representation from an ancient narrative to virtual reality

Summary/Abstract: Proceeding from the example of shield ekphrasis in pseudo-Hesiodic Shield of Herakles as one of the earliest verbal representations of visual phenomena in Western literature, the paper explores certain indicative relations between the development of theories considering this rhetorical figure, both in ancient and modern literary and interdisciplinary context, and contemporary approaches dealing with the issue of visual representation technologies in narratives articulated through non-verbal and ’not-only-verbal’ media. The necessary reactualization of the vaguely comprehended connection between ancient narrative techniques of „painting with words”, partially embodied in the set of rhetorical figures including ekphrasis, and (post)modern narratives’ „reality effect” is implemented through isolation and description of striking similarities between the main goals of these narrative technologies: creating a realistic illusion of spacial and temporal presence of the described phenomena, followed by total immersion of recipient into the world of the narrative, and, finally, developed into a „user controlled” environment that can be arbitrary altered by the recipient. In this regard, the basic aspects of the rethorical figure of ekphrasis can be recognized in the examples of modern and postmodern novel and its implementation in the domain of hypertextual reading and film montage as an ensurance of its penetration into the area of visual media. However, the rapid development of virtual reality environments, in which the disappearance of the control instance contained in references to the world outside the narrative also can be comprehended as an anticipation of the death of ekphrasis, furtherly problematizes the future status of this figure in the contemporary media systems

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