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The analysis of the relations and interactions between the media "literature" and "painting" is one of the oldest fields of comparative intermediality research. This course will deal with literary texts in which either paintings and works of fine art are addressed, or in which painters and visual artists act as protagonists. With the help of these works, the students should win an insight into the intermedia field of "literature and art" and get to test different theoretical positions and concepts of intermediality research.

Even in ancient times the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos (557/556 BC – 468/467 BC) notes that painting is silent poetry and poetry speaking painting. Images and literary texts have thus always been influenced and complemented each other. In 1995 the art historian Hans Hollander pleaded for conceiving the relationship between image- and word-texts as mutually complementary. As part of this course, students will learn about a number of literary works, in which the "sister art" painting and the person of the painter will be addressed in various ways. We will deal for example with artist novels such as Ludwig Tieck's "Franz Sternbalds Wanderungen" (1798), Hermann Hesse's "Klingsor's last Summer" (1920) or Hanns-Josef Ortheils "In the Light of the Lagoon" (1999), with works that thematize certain epochs of painting, such as Émile Zola's "The Work" (L'oeuvre, 1886) and with literary texts, in which paintings develop a particular life of their own (i.e. living pictures), such as Honoré de Balzac's "The unknown Masterpiece" (Le chef-d'oeuvre inconnu, 1831), Nikolai Gogol's "The Portrait "(Portret, 1835) and Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890).

The basics of the field of intermedial research in "literature and art" will be presented by the lecturer. The applicability of the theoretical approach will be tested in practice by the students in learning-groups. They will hold presentations and discuss their results in plenary.

To complete the course, the students have to prepare and present keynote speeches, which they elaborate in learning groups. At the end of the semester a short paper (extent 4.5 pages) has to be written. The participation in the discussions is included in the grading.

1.    Holländer, Hans: Literatur, Malerei und Graphik. Wechselwirkungen, Funktionen und Konkurrenzen. In: Zima, Peter V. (Hg.): Literatur Intermedial. Musik – Malerei – Photographie – Film. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1995, S. 129-170.

2.    Schmitz-Emans, Monika: Die Intertextualität der Bilder als Gegenstand der Literaturwissenschaft. In Foltinek, Herbert / Leitgeb Christoph (Hg.): Literaturwissenschaft: intermedial – interdisziplinär. Wien: Verl. d. österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften 2002, S. 193-230.

3.    Weisstein, Ulrich: Einleitung. Literatur und bildende Kunst. Geschichte, Systematik, Methoden. In: Ders. (Hg.): Literatur und bildende Kunst. Ein Handbuch zur Theorie und Praxis eines komparatistischen Grenzgebiets. Berlin: Erich Schmidt 1992, S. 11-31.

4.    Wolf, Werner: Das Problem der Narrativität in Literatur, bildender Kunst und Musik: Ein Beitrag zu einer intermedialen Erzähltheorie. In: Nünning, Vera und Nünning Ansgar (Hg.): Erzähltheorie transgenerisch, intermedial, interdisziplinär. Trier: WVT, Wiss. Verlag Trier 2002, S. 23-105.

5.    Wolf, Werner: Intermedialität: ein weites Feld und eine Herausforderung für die Literaturwissenschaft. In: Foltinek, Herbert und Leitgeb, Christoph (Hg.): Literaturwissenschaft. intermedial – interdisziplinär, Wien: Verl. d. österr. Akademie d. Wissenschaften 2002, S. 163-193.