Text, Image, and Music

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Text, Image, and Music

Performative Aspects of Optatian’s Visual Poetry

Okáčová, Marie

From the journal Hermes Hermes, Volume 151, September 2023, issue 4

Published by Franz Steiner Verlag

article, 8650 Words
Original language: English
Hermes 2023, pp 449-466
https://doi.org/10.25162/hermes-2023-0036

Abstract Related content References

Abstract

The overall aim of this paper is to enquire about the performative qualities of Optatian’s visual poems and contextualize these experimental texts within the late-antique culture of transformation and change. Adopting a performative approach, the author sheds new light on the metatexts embedded in the majority of Optatian’s carmina as well as the metadiscursive significance of several individual pieces of his collection (Carm. 3 and 25, in particular). The performative features traceable in the corpus include: a) notions of multi-mediality and spectacularity together with the physical materiality and dynamics of language, all constantly advertised by the poet; b) the expected active role of readers as co-performers of these intricate texts; and c) the inherent performative power of particular intextual images.

Author information

Marie Okáčová

Keywords

Optatian | visual poetry | performance | performativity | spectacularity | multi-mediality

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