This book challenges the focus on pictoriality as central constituent of visual culture from
the perspective of literary studies which in the wake of an 'intermedial turn' so far focused
on the ways texts relate to pictures and visual media either in praesentia (e.g. word and image
studies) or in absentia (e.g. ekphrasis). Instead it emphasizes literature's participation in
visual culture at large and focuses on three areas of investigation: (1) the depiction of for
instance visual perceptions in the literary mode of description which is paramount to
formatting the mental aspect of visual culture (2) the readerly practice of visualising
situations and events of the fictional world which mediates between those mentefacts and
techniques of writing (3) textual visibilities which are grounded in materiality. The volume
explores these three areas from a systematically integrated perspective and the essays include
in-depth treatments of seminal examples taken from Western literatures (primarily English and
German but also French and American literature) from early modern times to the present. This
book's aim is to work out literature's active role in shaping visual culture thus
demonstrating its relevance for image studies.
