Shakespeare, the Ekphrastic Translator

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Published: Jun 1, 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/lincu-2015-0038
Keywords:
Shakespeare Rape of Lucrece ekphrasis intersemiotic transposition verbal and visual codes translation process

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Pia Brînzeu
West University of Timişoara, Romania

Abstract

In The Rape of Lucrece, the Shakespearean heroine admires a wall-painting illustrating a scene from the Trojan War. The two hundred lines of the poem in which Lucrece describes the ancient characters involved in the war represent a remarkable piece of ekphrastic transposition. It produces a vivid effect in the poem’s narrative, draws attention to the power of ekphrasis in guiding the reader’s interpretation, and represents an unrivalled example of embedded ekphrasis, unique in Renaissance poetry.


 

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How to Cite
Brînzeu, P. “Shakespeare, the Ekphrastic Translator”. Linguaculture, vol. 6, no. 1, June 2015, pp. 89-97, doi:10.1515/lincu-2015-0038.
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Vol. 6 No. 1 (2015)
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Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Author Biography

Pia Brînzeu, West University of Timişoara, Romania

Pia Brînzeu is Full Professor of English Literature at the University of Timişoara, Romania, and former Chair of the Romanian Society for English and American Studies. She has been the co-editor of the journal B.A.S. (British and American Studies) since 1995 and has published several books, among which Corridors of Mirrors: Postwall British and Romanian Fiction (University Press of America, 2000), as well as a series of articles on narratology in Semiotica, Degres, and Poetics. She is co-author of Translating the Body (2007), has edited Heterotopia/Heterocosms: Spaces in Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Fiction (2011), and is currently working on a book about Renaissance drama.

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