Mirror as a Pre-screen Image in Tennyson’s Poem “The Lady of Shalott” and Pre-Raphaelite Illustrations

DOI

10.2991/icassee-18.2018.126How to use a DOI?

Keywords

visual culture; screen prehistory; Tennyson; the Lady of Shalott; the Pre-Raphaelites; mirror; photography; film; addiction; gender

Abstract

The relation between screen culture and images in Alfred Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott” as well as in Pre-Raphaelite illustrations and paintings to the poem are analyzed in the article. The image of the Lady represents a total dependence on a magical “screen”, which in itself is a mirror. The author draws attention to the fact that fairy behaves like a dependent person, passive perceiving individual, more typical for mass media era. Works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt which represent the poem episodes and consider to different extents the image of a mirror similar to screen are studied. Hunt’s illustrations highlight the connection between pre-screen motifs with the theme of female self-determination and crisis of romantic masculinity. As well author analyzes Henry Peach Robinson’s staged photography “The Lady of Shalott” which resembles black-and-white film frame.

Copyright

© 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Anna Nikiforova
PY  - 2018/12
DA  - 2018/12
TI  - Mirror as a Pre-screen Image in Tennyson’s Poem “The Lady of Shalott” and Pre-Raphaelite Illustrations
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education (ICASSEE 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 638
EP  - 642
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icassee-18.2018.126
DO  - 10.2991/icassee-18.2018.126
ID  - Nikiforova2018/12
ER  -