The Poetics Of Description: Imagined Places In European Literature

The Poetics of Description Detail from a Latin redaction of the Progymnasmata of Aphthonius edited by R. Agricola and annotated by R. Lorich, published in Amsterdam in 1649. (Reproduced by permission of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University). The Poetics of Description Imagined Places in European Literature Janice Hewlett Koelb THE POETICS OF DESCRIPTION Copyright © Janice Hewlett Koelb, 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Permission has been generously granted by the William Blake Archive to reprint a selection from William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Copy C, plate 6. First published in 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN-10: 1-4039-7489-6 ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-7489-1 hardcover hardcover Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. Koelb, Janice Hewlett. The poetics of description : imagined places in European literature / Janice Hewlett Koelb. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-4039-7489-6 (cloth) 1. Imaginary places in literature. 2. European literature—History and criticism. I. Title. PN56.I44K64 2006 809’.93372–dc22 2006043424 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Macmillan India Ltd. First edition: December 2006 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. For T.G.P. Thus the theory of description matters most. It is the theory of the word for those For whom the word is the making of the world, The buzzing world and lisping firmament. —Wallace Stevens “Description without Place” This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface xi Introduction: Ecphrasis, Description, and the Imagined Place 1 1 As if Present: Classical Ecphrasis 19 2 Unity, Form, and Figuration 43 3 A Sylvan Scene 69 4 The Universe Dead or Alive: Gilpin, Wordsworth, and the Picturesque 97 5 The Visionary Eye: Wordsworth’s Antipicturesque Excursion 125 6 155 “Till the Place Became Religion”: Byron’s Coliseum Epilogue: Immediacy 189 Notes 199 Works Cited 207 Index 221 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to thank the Graduate School of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, for a generous one-year fellowship that enabled me to write full-time; Thomas J. Nixon, Humanities Reference Librarian at Carolina’s Davis Library, for his instant solutions to all my research problems and queries; Eric S. Downing for mentoring the teaching experiences that stimulated this project; Farideh Koohi-Kamali and Julia Cohen of Palgrave Macmillan and the staff of Macmillan India for unfailing courtesy and efficiency in handling my manuscript; and the expert readers engaged by Palgrave to evaluate the manuscript. Their comments and criticism provided the spur for many important changes and improvements. Many others have helped me in many ways, but I would like especially to acknowledge Dino S. Cervigni