Word and Image in the Long Eighteenth Century: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Interrelated by a common thread, which is the emphasis on the interdependence of literature and the visual arts, the essays selected for this collection illustrate how eighteenth-century specialists approach word and image studies today. In addition to highlighting various concepts and concerns of particular pertinence to current scholarship, these studies also serve the important practical function of sensitising the reader to both the possibilities and limitations of this sort of interdisciplinary undertaking. Without foregrounding the visual, these contributions aim to look at verbal-visual interaction through the prism of equality and balance that marks word and image studies-that is, without valorising one to the detriment of the other. The choice of images as objects of study reflects the democratisation of the visual domain advocated by visual culture studies: from theatre iconography and painted portraits of actors, to drawing books and educational prints, graphic satire and royal portraiture, conversation pieces and domestic interiors, literary illustrations and versified prints after well-known paintings, and engravings commissioned for calendars and periodicals. If the choice of images is inclusive and diverse so is the choice of texts: epistolary novels, conduct manuals, Salon criticism, plays, drawing books, pamphlets, historical writings, verses accompanying engravings and satirical prints are among those examined from a word and image perspective. The primary objective of this collection is to advance research in the field of word and image theory and methodology by stimulating dialogue on the rich and complex verbal-visual interaction structuring mixed media of expression and underpinning cultural formations in eighteenth-century Europe. Peaceful coexistence, mutual collaboration or striking collision-how do words and images interact in eighteenth-century art, literature and culture? How do they reflect and communicate values, stereotypes and ideologies?

Christina Ionescu is an Assistant Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Mount Allison University. She is a dix-huitiemiste with a specialisation in Word and Image theory who has published on the work of Francoise de Graffigny. Renata Schellenberg is an Assistant Professor of German with a specialization in eighteenth-century literature and culture. Her current research centres on cultures of commodity in eighteenth-century Germany with a special focus on the collecting process. She is also a great Goethe enthusiast.