Ekphrasis le cas du Lancelot-Graal /

by 1963- Pires, Alessandra Maria

The main focus of this dissertation is the analysis of the rhetorical figure of ekphrasis, i.e., the description of works of art inscribed in literature, in light of the thirteenth century French prose romance. My intent is to pursue the concept of ekphrasis from Antiquity through the Middle Ages, starting with Horace’s Ars Poetica and Philostratus’s Imagines and their aesthetic repercussions in the medieval world, as a means of observing the changes that this figure underwent, especially with regard to its role inside the romance. I analyze the interaction between literature and the visual arts as it unfolds in the literary work, using a phenomenological approach. Finally, I illustrate my analysis by taking examples from the thirteenth century Lancelot-Grail cycle, also known as the Arthurian Vulgate.