What's in a shadow? Menace, seduction, or salvation? Immaterial but profound, shadows lurk everywhere in literature and the visual arts, signifying everything from the treachery of appearances to the unfathomable power of God. From Plato to Picasso, from Rembrandt to Welles and Warhol, from Lord of the Rings to the latest video game, shadows act as central players in the drama of Western culture.
Yet because they work silently, artistic shadows often slip unnoticed past audiences and critics. Conceived as an accessible introduction to this elusive phenomenon, Grasping Shadows is the first book that offers a general theory of how all shadows function in texts and visual media. Arguing that shadow images take shape within a common cultural field where visual and verbal meanings overlap, William Sharpe ranges widely among classic and modern works, revealing the key motifs that link apparently disparate works such as those by Fra Angelico and James Joyce, Clementina Hawarden and Kara Walker, Charles Dickens and Kumi Yamashita.
Showing how real-world shadows have shaped the meanings of shadow imagery, Grasping Shadows guides the reader through the techniques used by writers and artists to represent shadows from the Renaissance onward. The last chapter traces how shadows impact the art of the modern city, from Renoir and Zola to film noir and projection systems that capture the shadows of passers-by on streets around the globe. Extending his analysis to contemporary street art, popular songs, billboards, and shadow-theatre, Sharpe demonstrates a practical way to grasp the "dark side" that looms all around us.
Author(s): William Chapman Sharpe
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 440
Cover
Grasping Shadows: The Dark Side of Literature, Painting, Photography, and Film
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Grasping Shadows
INTRODUCTION: The Shadow Landscape
A WORLD OF SHADOWS
APPROACHING THE SHADOW
SHADOW WORD, SHADOW IMAGE
LEARNING FROM SHADOWS
HOW TO PAINT A SHADOW
STRIKING SHADOWS
A SHADOWY OUTLINE
1: THE SHADOW SPEAKS
NO “JUST PLAIN” SHADOWS
SHADOW SIGNIFICANCE
FOUR GROUPS OF SHADOW MEANING
ME AND MY SHADOW
NAMING SHADOWS
RECOGNIZING A SHADOW
2: THE VITAL SHADOW
TRACING A SHADOW
IMPROVING A SHADOW
WHOSE SHADOW?
MAGIC SHADOWS
THE CORINTHIAN MAID REVISITED
SILHOUETTES AND SHADES
SECURING THE SHADOW
THE KINGDOM OF SHADOWS
THE ESSENTIAL TRAIT
3: THE LOOK-ELSEWHERE SHADOW
IN PLATO’S CAVE
WHY A CAVE?
WHERE THE SUBSTANCE LIES
THE EVERYDAY IMPERCEPTIBLE SHADOW
SHADOWS OF THINGS TO COME
COMING EVENTS: THE SECULAR SHADOW
SHADOWED EXPECTATIONS
THE CONSTRUCTED SHADOW
TRICK SHADOWS
4: THE COMPLETING SHADOW
A SHADY DEAL
WHAT’S IN A SHADOW?
THE SOLID SHADOW
JUST ADD SHADOW
BECOMING A SHADOW
SHADOW MATING
SHADOW DANCE
THE LIVING SHADOW
SUBTRACTING A SHADOW
THE AESTHETIC SHADOW
A SHADOW TOO MANY
5: THE INDEPENDENT SHADOW
THE UPSTART SHADOW
THE DARK DOUBLE
THE RACIALIZED SHADOW
THE SHADOW ACTS
THE LOOMING SHADOW
FREED ON FILM
THE SHADOW STANDS ALONE
SHADES: WHAT THE DEAD KNOW
SHADOW-SHOWS
6: CITY OF SHADOWS
THE LIFE OF THE WALKING SHADOW
READING CITY SHADOWS
ANGLES, PATTERNS, AND PROTO-NOIR
SHADOW NOIR
GRIPPED BY GRASPING SHADOWS
SHADOWS IN THE STREET
THE INTERACTIVE SHADOW
EPILOGUE: Living with Shadows
THE SHADOW OF LIFE, THE SHADOW OF ART
THE SHADOW IS AMPLE
NOTES
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Shadow Speaks
Chapter 2 The Vital Shadow
Chapter 3 The Look-Elsewhere Shadow
Chapter 4 The Completing Shadow
Chapter 5 The Independent Shadow
Chapter 6 City of Shadows
Epilogue
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
