Dying Still Lifes in the Works of Lawrence Durrell: Questioning the Visible
This paper explores the various forms of dying still lifes in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet and Avignon Quintet. Starting from the study of the representation of the cityscape in The Quartet we show how the city metamorphoses into an empowered and wilful protagonist who dispossesses human su...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Miranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/51446 |
| _version_ | 1797809489419698176 |
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| author | Isabelle Keller-Privat |
| author_facet | Isabelle Keller-Privat |
| author_sort | Isabelle Keller-Privat |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper explores the various forms of dying still lifes in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet and Avignon Quintet. Starting from the study of the representation of the cityscape in The Quartet we show how the city metamorphoses into an empowered and wilful protagonist who dispossesses human subjects of their own agency and traps them in the obsessive repetition of dying still lifes that betray their own deathly violence. These embedded still lifes reshape our perception of life and death and reorient our gaze towards the irrepresentable: that of death as well as that of a fictional time-space that expands beyond the limits of the book. Thus, the animal and male dying still lifes of The Quartet resurface in The Quintet as feminine still lifes challenging death and male power: that of the spouse, of the hunter, and of the narrator. Beyond the staging of animal and female preys scattered throughout the texts, the dying still lifes open onto a transgressive space that questions mimesis and hegemony. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T06:53:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-260d2fb51a2549c78939edd50e6df8ca |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2108-6559 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T06:53:29Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Miranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone |
| spelling | doaj.art-260d2fb51a2549c78939edd50e6df8ca2023-06-07T12:21:17ZengUniversité Toulouse - Jean JaurèsMiranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone2108-65592023-01-012710.4000/miranda.51446Dying Still Lifes in the Works of Lawrence Durrell: Questioning the VisibleIsabelle Keller-PrivatThis paper explores the various forms of dying still lifes in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet and Avignon Quintet. Starting from the study of the representation of the cityscape in The Quartet we show how the city metamorphoses into an empowered and wilful protagonist who dispossesses human subjects of their own agency and traps them in the obsessive repetition of dying still lifes that betray their own deathly violence. These embedded still lifes reshape our perception of life and death and reorient our gaze towards the irrepresentable: that of death as well as that of a fictional time-space that expands beyond the limits of the book. Thus, the animal and male dying still lifes of The Quartet resurface in The Quintet as feminine still lifes challenging death and male power: that of the spouse, of the hunter, and of the narrator. Beyond the staging of animal and female preys scattered throughout the texts, the dying still lifes open onto a transgressive space that questions mimesis and hegemony.http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/51446agencyhauntingmimesispoetryvulnerability |
| spellingShingle | Isabelle Keller-Privat Dying Still Lifes in the Works of Lawrence Durrell: Questioning the Visible Miranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone agency haunting mimesis poetry vulnerability |
| title | Dying Still Lifes in the Works of Lawrence Durrell: Questioning the Visible |
| title_full | Dying Still Lifes in the Works of Lawrence Durrell: Questioning the Visible |
| title_fullStr | Dying Still Lifes in the Works of Lawrence Durrell: Questioning the Visible |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dying Still Lifes in the Works of Lawrence Durrell: Questioning the Visible |
| title_short | Dying Still Lifes in the Works of Lawrence Durrell: Questioning the Visible |
| title_sort | dying still lifes in the works of lawrence durrell questioning the visible |
| topic | agency haunting mimesis poetry vulnerability |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/51446 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT isabellekellerprivat dyingstilllifesintheworksoflawrencedurrellquestioningthevisible |