Awakenings in Word and Image - by Nathaniel Wallace (Hardcover)

About the Book

Awakenings in Word and Image takes up the experience of awakening from antiquity onward. Theories of eschatology and cognition are utilized to clarify a basic experience that has been subject to a surprising shortage of critical attention.

Book Synopsis

The awakening process has received limited attention in comparison with other phases of the circadian cycle. Among its foci, Awakenings in Word and Image takes up persistent allusions to downward movement in such depictions. Despite the familiar phrase, "wake up," intimations of downwardness or falling often appear in tandem with retrieval of a depicted subject's identity following sleep. Awakenings in Word and Image also makes clear that, while this process is body-based, such a designation is often applied to enhancements of consciousness, whether within an individual or across a culture. On the verbal side, material from Plato, the New Testament, Proust, and other sources is considered. Visual art discussed includes work by Italian frescoist Taddeo Zuccari and acclaimed New York painter Vincent Desiderio .

About the Author

Nathaniel Wallace, a comparatist by training (Ph.D., Rutgers), has taught English in South Carolina and elsewhere. Brill published his Scanning the Hypnoglyph in 2016. He has held NEH and Camargo fellowships and has lectured in Norway and Romania on Fulbright grants.