Congres ‘La Magie de l’image’

Op 17 en 18 juni 2010 organiseert Daphne Hoogenboezem van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen het congre, en tevens de SRNU-studiedag La Magie de l’image. Images textuelles et visuelles dans les contes de fées.

From the famous frontispiece in Charles Perrault’s Mother Goose Tales, through the rustic woodcuts in chapbooks and the luxuriously illustrated folio editions of the Romantic period, to the modern adaptations for the screen, images appear at various levels of the fairy tale and in multiple appearances.

Their most striking form is probably the illustrative image. However, the function of the illustration, as we all know, is far more extensive than pure decoration. Through illustrations a second reading of the tale is created, that tells the story of the fairy tale as well as the evolution and reception of the genre. This second story too deserves to be unravelled and told. On the textual level, the image, although less obvious, is still used frequently. We find metaphors and allegories as well as descriptions of images (ekphrasis, narrative images) such as the descriptions of the mythological portraits in Madame de Murat’s Anguilletta or the medieval illuminations, that turn out to be alive in Madame d’Aulnoy’s tale The Golden Branch.

What characteristics do textual and visual images have and to what purpose do authors, illustrators, editors and educators make use of them? Locus of definition and illusion: the image moulds the marvel, but how? Can we draw up a theory to describe the interaction between word and image in fairy tales? How do the two media, text and image, affect each other? Can we perceive influences of other (types of) images (illustrations for other texts, paintings, …)? What do illustrations tell us about the period or country they were published in: are they a means of cultural transfer? These are some of the questions we would like to attempt to answer during a conference organised at the University of Groningen.

Official languages during the conference : French and English.
Conference location: Academy building, Broerstraat 5, room 2.