Addressing Ekphrasis.

The final submission takes the theoretical/practical research of writing grounded theory a step further. Addressing itself to a particular philological journal , Classical Philology, it is constructed as a series of ekphrastic moments which replace each other in an attempt to find different attachments of individual visual and aural instances to a hugely developed body of critical commentary. Ekphrasis studies are a genuine link between art history and contemporary studies in visual culture, art criticism etc. Here I set out to explore the archives and theoretical stances that characterise the different preoccupations of my website in terms of the one, classic topos of art and literary theory that is ekphrasis. The article brings the pursuit of a-historical studies into the field of multiple historical specificities, opening questions around how contemporary cultural practices such as sampling and surfing can enable us to rethink academic and art-critical writing. The article develops from a paper given at a conference of international classicists, literary theorists and art historians organised by Dr Jaś Elsner at the University of Chicago in April 2004