Welcome to this research site devoted to ekphrasis.  It attempts to contribute to the research, teaching, and study of English and American literature in Taiwan, especially ekphrastic poetry, by providing substantial primary and secondary sources from Taiwan and abroad, as well as relevant links and bibliographies.  As a field of interart studies, ekphrasis explores the complex relations between visual and verbal texts.  Though scholars continue to debate and attempt to stipulate a precise meaning for the term ekphrasis, in this site I propose a very general definition that ekphrasis is the study of literary texts which are based upon, refer to, or describe visual texts such as paintings, sculpture, drawings, photographs, lithographs, etc. Literary researchers involved in ekphrastic studies focus on the ambivalent relations between verbal and visual texts.   Early ekphrastic studies tend to see the verbal texts as merely "descriptive," as reproducing in words the visual sources, as verbalizing the silent paintings.   More recent studies challenge that assessment and focus on ekphrastic texts as sites for antagonism and renegotiations between the verbal and visual texts and as sites in which cultural and ideological issues are foregrounded in the confrontation between the verbal and the visual. 

This web site is a databank that attempts to foster discussion about ekphrasis, literature and the visual arts.  It contains primary and second sources that explore the theoretical, pedagogical, and practical issues related to literary study in general and ekphrasis in particular. The purpose of this site is to gather and organize materials related to the study, understanding, and appreciation of English literature, with an emphasis on interart studies and ekphrastic poetry.  This databank provides in one central online location local and international materials devoted to ekphrasis and literary studies.  It also provides an arena for ekphrastic study by presenting verbal texts as well as some color reproductions of the visual materials.  Furthermore, the databank provides a site where theoretical questioning and reconceptualization of ekphrasis and interart studies can be undertaken.   With the continuous developments in computer and multimedia technology, the relationship between the verbal and the visual is undergoing rapid transformations.  Computer monitors are now localized sites where visual images are read as words, where words are imposed upon visual images, and where words themselves become visual icons.   The meaning, possibilities, and implications of these changes as they relate to literary study, particularly ekphrastic studies, need to be considered.  The online databank offers a space in which the very nature of ekphrastic study can be pushed to new levels of understanding and reconceptualized. 

The databank is designed with scholars, teachers, and students in mind, and it contains materials with both graduate and undergraduate teaching possibilities, as well as research materials for academic writing and discussion about poetry as well as the relationship between literature and the visual arts. All of the online materials gathered here have been chosen with the hope that they will be useful and available for graduate and undergraduate students, interested local community members, teachers of English literature, and scholars.  The databank also specializes in providing primary visual and verbal texts, as well as secondary materials helpful for ekphrastic studies of poetry, including poetic texts, reproductions of related examples from the visual arts, and scholarly papers from sources here in Taiwan, abroad, and the internet.  The "Academic Papers" section of the databank contains not just the titles but also the actual content of local and international papers related to ekphrasis and literature. 

Because ekphrastic studies address verbal and visual arts from the classical Greek and Roman era to the present, the "Ekphrastic Texts" section of this site must limit its scope.  It primarily focuses on Twentieth Century English and American ekphrastic poetry.  It offers a forum for discussion of literary topics relating to modern and postmodern poetry, especially the relationship between Twentieth Century poetry and the visual arts.  Even by narrowing the focus to modern and postmodern poetry, I have not attempted to be comprehensive.  Instead, in the "Ekphrastic Texts" section I provide a range of poems that suggest diverse (and even contradictory) approaches to ekphrastic poetry.  The texts include ekphrastic writings by both men and women; poems that attempt to reproduce in words visual texts; poems that use a visual text as a point of departure for meditation; poems that challenge the nature of the relationship between the verbal and the visual; poems that address visual texts not available to readers; poems that explore, subvert or ideologically reproduce well known visual icons; poems that attempt to reproduce specific techniques rather than address the content of the visual texts; and a variety of other poems that offer diverse explorations of the relationship between the verbal and the visual. 

The "Relevant Links" section provides connections to other online studies, both here in Taiwan and abroad, that relate to ekphrastic studies.  This section is divided into four areas: links to online sources for visual arts, links to web sites devoted to interart studies, links to online ekphrastic studies, and links to online essays about computerization and ekphrasis.  Because of growing interest in the study of ekphrasis and the relationship between digitalization and literature, this section will continue to be updated.  The "Bibliography" section does not attempt to be comprehensive; instead, it offers a list of full-length ekphrastic studies that range from studies of Classical Greek and Roman literature to Twentieth Century poetry and prose. 

This databank will continue to be developed and remain under permanent construction.  In the future I would like to include an online discussion area which will be a "free space" where individuals can post brief comments or pursue in-depth online discussions of critical issues relating to ekphrasis.  If you are interested in contributing to this area or have suggestions for fostering such discussions, please let me know.  I will also continue soliciting critical essays that pursue topics related to ekphrasis and interart studies, add additional links to other helpful online sites, and provide additional literary and visual texts. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions related to this site, please feel free to contact me.