Oxford Graduate Symposium in Spanish Golden Age Studies
'Looking at the World Sideways: Perspective in the Spanish Golden Age'
Saturday 16 January 2010
University of Oxford
Keynote speaker: Prof. Jeremy Robbins
The Renaissance saw a flourishing, both conceptually and technically, in the
understanding of perspective, taken in the Baroque to new extremes of
distortion and dynamic movement. In contrast to the modern conception of a
‘right way’ in which to perceive things, artists and authors in the Golden
Age worked with multiple perspectives, allowing for different
interpretations from different audiences, challenging their readers to
decipher several meanings, consistently treading the fine line between
illusion and reality. In modern usage, the term is far more frequently
applied to the visual arts than to literary texts; to poetry, prose or
drama. However, the definition of perspective as ‘a figure designed to
appear distorted or confused except when viewed from a certain position’ is
just as applicable to satire or literature written under censorship as it is
to visual illusion. The description of ‘a device for producing an unusual
optical effect, e.g. the distortion of an image’ is relevant to our reading
of culteranismo; its use as ‘a picture drawn according to the rules of
perspective, (esp. theatrical backdrop) appearing to enlarge or extend the
actual space’ can apply both to dramatic language and scenography, as well
as to the architecture of churches and palaces. Moreover, the Spanish
definition, ‘apariencia o representación engañosa y falaz de las cosas’,
implies as much for our readings of Cervantes, Quevedo or Calderón as it
does for our interpretations of Velázquez or Coello.
Throughout the symposium, we will be working with these, and other
definitions of perspective in order to answer the following questions: Are
ideas of perspective applied to the visual arts also relevant to literature?
How does this affect our understanding of the relationship between different
modes of perception? What are the implications for our understanding of
perspective(s) in the Early Modern Hispanic World? How can we extend the
idea of perspective beyond the visual arts to provide a more holistic
definition encompassing ways of envisioning the world, articulating
experience and inhabiting spaces in the Golden Age?
Topics may include, but are not confined to, the following:
• Censorship and subversion
• Critiques of kingship and panegyric
• The effect of the Counter-Reformation on modes of perception
• Satire
• Ut pictura poesis
• Language and scenography in the theatre
• Culteranismo
• The interplay of illusion and reality
• The use of physical spaces: theatres, churches, palaces
• Private and Public spheres
Please submit proposals of up to 250 words for papers of no more than 20
minutes, in English or Spanish, to [log in to unmask] or
[log in to unmask] no later than 30th October 2009.
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