Journal Article

Description of Handwriting: Physiognomic Portraits in Nineteenth-Century Novels

Tóth, Orsolya

2019

Overview

The article examines a specific type of description: that of a character's physical features, or, in the broader sense, the possibility of ekphrasis in narrative. First of all, I focus on how the looks of persons-characters-are rendered in the nineteenthcentury novel. Then I turn to the means and functions of describing handwriting. Recently corporeal narratology has emphasized that the representation of human bodies within a narrative is always determined by the fact that the body image is historically and culturally constituted. In the nineteenth century the key components of this cultural context were provided by J. C. Lavater writings on physiognomy. Relying on the terminology of Graeme Tytler I reconceptualize, in the language of narratology, the emergence of thepost-Lavaterianportrait.

• Publisher: Slovenian Comparative Literature Association/Slovensko Drustvo za Primerjalno Knjizevnost
• Subject: 19th century / Cultural factors / Handwriting / Human body / Literary history / Lombroso, Cesare (1835-1909) / Narrative techniques / Narratives / Narratology / Novels / Terminology