Image and Text: the Reconstitution of Narrative

An examination of the tradition of illustrated narratives in several premodern cultures: the early 11th-century Japanese Genji Monogatari , the medieval English Canterbury Tales , and the ancient Indian epic the Māhābharata . Discussion focuses on the nature of iconography and symbolism; the historical privileging of text over image; the significance of parallel visual and verbal representation and its implications for culturally-specific theories of reading. Seminar.