Ekphrasis, the description of pictorial art in words, is the subject of this bibliography. More specifically, some 2500 poems on paintings are catalogued, by type of publication in which they appear and by poet. Also included are 2000 entries on the secondary literature of ekphrasis, including works on sculpture, music, photography, film, and mixed media.

This innovative interdisciplinary study compares the uses of painting in literary texts and films. In developing a framework of four types of ekphrasis, the author argues for the expansion of the concept of ekphrasis by demonstrating its applicability as interpretive tool to films about the visual arts and artists. Analyzing selected works of art by Goya, Rembrandt, and Vermeer and their ekphrastic treatment in various texts and films, this book examines how the medium of ekphrasis affects the representation of the visual arts in order to show what the differences imply about issues such as gender roles and the function of art for the construction of a personal or social identity. Because of its highly cross-disciplinary nature, this book is of interest not only to scholars of literature and aesthetics, but also for scholars of film studies. By providing an innovative approach to discussing non-documentary films about artists, the author shows that ekphrasis is a useful tool for exploring both aesthetic concerns and ideological issues in film. This study also addresses art historians as it deals with the reception of major artists in European literature and film throughout the 20th century.

Abstracts of dissertations available on microfilm or as xerographic reproductions.

Among the many books written on or by Salvador Dalí, this is the first to give a complete, well-documented picture of his life and art. Carlos Rojas's approach to Dalí is somewhere between biography, Freudian analysis, and art and literary interpretation. Dalí is haunted from earliest childhood by the specter of his elder brother who died as a toddler shortly before Dalí was conceived (both brothers and the father bore the same name), as he is haunted by the devouring phantom of his mother, that praying mantis on whose portrait he would like to spit. Dalí is seen as endlessly struggling to affirm his identity and existence. A combination of genius, madman, neurotic, and spoiled brat, Dalí is illuminated by his work, while the known facts of his life, his own writings, those of his sister, and of others, are used to analyze the paintings, which are described in considerable detail. Rojas also provides sustained analyses of Dalí's relationships, including his influential amorous and intellectual affair with Federico García Lorca.