Drafting a book on the Art of Description in Literature



Scotland 2013

The aim of this as-yet-unwritten book is to explore "description" in terms of 

(1) creative craft (2) critical analysis.


Proposed Contents



  1. The extinction/manipulation of vision

  1. Beyond visualization?

  1. Description before the era of photography and film

  1. The role of conventions and traditions

  1. How writers deploy ambiguity and contradiction for effect

  1. Making lists: enumeration

  1. The romantic description

  1. The aesthetics of the sublime

  1. The aesthetics of the beautiful

  1. Creating a sense of disgust

  1. Creating a sense of horror

  1. Description of character

  1. Employing multiple sensations

  1. Communicating mood and tone

  1. The Point of View

  1. Tilting and Panning

  1. The Panorama

  1. The Frame

  1. The use of zoom control

  1. The Guided Tour

  1. Towards Abstraction: generality and description

  1. Legality: the witness statement

  1. Scientific observation

  Any comments welcome! Ian

Dr Ian McCormick is the author of The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences
(2013) Also available on Kindle, or to download.

Also worth a look: The PhD Roadmap: A Guide to Successful Submission of your Dissertation / Thesis.

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