Art Nouveau and Interarts in A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book
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Jack Stewart
Abstract
In The Children’s Book, A. S. Byatt sees Art Nouveau (1890-1914) as a cultural phenomenon intrinsic to a transitional period and linking contradictory tendencies of stillness and movement, “shadows and glitter.” She focuses on a series of arts - ceramics, glassware, jewelry, fabrics, tapestry, dance, lighting, costumes, furniture, interior decoration, architecture - highlighting stylistic parameters of Art Nouveau, such as curvilinearity, arabesque form, asymmetry, abstraction from nature, and eclectic use of materials. The overall goal of Art Nouveau was a “total work of art” or “Gesamtkunstwerk” that would integrate various arts to create a unified aesthetic effect. Byatt’s own colorful style, combining ekphrasis with pictorialism, representation with invention, pursues this aim in an ambitious interarts novel.
Abstract
In The Children’s Book, A. S. Byatt sees Art Nouveau (1890-1914) as a cultural phenomenon intrinsic to a transitional period and linking contradictory tendencies of stillness and movement, “shadows and glitter.” She focuses on a series of arts - ceramics, glassware, jewelry, fabrics, tapestry, dance, lighting, costumes, furniture, interior decoration, architecture - highlighting stylistic parameters of Art Nouveau, such as curvilinearity, arabesque form, asymmetry, abstraction from nature, and eclectic use of materials. The overall goal of Art Nouveau was a “total work of art” or “Gesamtkunstwerk” that would integrate various arts to create a unified aesthetic effect. Byatt’s own colorful style, combining ekphrasis with pictorialism, representation with invention, pursues this aim in an ambitious interarts novel.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword from the Editors V
- Acknowledgements VII
- Contents IX
-
Special Focus: “Beyond Mind”
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: “Ahistoricity, Assemblages and Interpretative Reversals”
- The Fullness of Nothing, the Sense of the Nonsensical, and the Value of Being Unproductive 23
- Automatic Writing: From Networked Art to Cyberwarfare 49
- Cracking the Beckettian Profounds of Mind in Endgame with Game Theory 73
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Part II: “Destinerrance, Labyrinths and Folds”
- “The End Is Built into the Beginning”: Charlie Kaufman and the Orderly Disorder of Neuroscience 95
- The Fold: Musical Monads and Baroque Assemblages 117
- The Liquid Architecture of Bodily Folding 137
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Part III: “Immanent Transcendence”
- Herat 1487: Early Virtual Reality 151
- “Aesthetic Borderlands” in Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books 173
- The White Space Conflict Theory: Understanding Photography as Energy 197
-
General Section
- Panopticon and Pilgrimage: The Narrator- Reader Relationship in Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews 223
- Language, Symbol, and “Non-Symbolic Fact” in D. G. Rossetti’s “The Woodspurge” 243
- Art Nouveau and Interarts in A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book 265
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Book Reviews
- Barbara Franchi, Elvan Mutlu, eds. Crossing Borders in Victorian Travel: Spaces, Nations and Empires 295
- Marion Gymnich, Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz et. al. The Orphan in Fiction andComics since the 19th Century 301
- Review Essay: Recent Studies in Renaissance Aesthetics 307
- Review Essay: World-Building in Literatureand Beyond 315
- List of Contributors 325
- Index 329
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword from the Editors V
- Acknowledgements VII
- Contents IX
-
Special Focus: “Beyond Mind”
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: “Ahistoricity, Assemblages and Interpretative Reversals”
- The Fullness of Nothing, the Sense of the Nonsensical, and the Value of Being Unproductive 23
- Automatic Writing: From Networked Art to Cyberwarfare 49
- Cracking the Beckettian Profounds of Mind in Endgame with Game Theory 73
-
Part II: “Destinerrance, Labyrinths and Folds”
- “The End Is Built into the Beginning”: Charlie Kaufman and the Orderly Disorder of Neuroscience 95
- The Fold: Musical Monads and Baroque Assemblages 117
- The Liquid Architecture of Bodily Folding 137
-
Part III: “Immanent Transcendence”
- Herat 1487: Early Virtual Reality 151
- “Aesthetic Borderlands” in Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books 173
- The White Space Conflict Theory: Understanding Photography as Energy 197
-
General Section
- Panopticon and Pilgrimage: The Narrator- Reader Relationship in Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews 223
- Language, Symbol, and “Non-Symbolic Fact” in D. G. Rossetti’s “The Woodspurge” 243
- Art Nouveau and Interarts in A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book 265
-
Book Reviews
- Barbara Franchi, Elvan Mutlu, eds. Crossing Borders in Victorian Travel: Spaces, Nations and Empires 295
- Marion Gymnich, Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz et. al. The Orphan in Fiction andComics since the 19th Century 301
- Review Essay: Recent Studies in Renaissance Aesthetics 307
- Review Essay: World-Building in Literatureand Beyond 315
- List of Contributors 325
- Index 329
