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• 1. [Article] From Art to Performance: Marcel Duchamp’s Imagery of Chess Exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery

  In 1944, Marcel Duchamp organized a widely publicized exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City, The Imagery of Chess. This thesis will explore The Imagery of Chess exhibition in terms of ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: From Art to Performance: Marcel Duchamp’s Imagery of Chess Exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery Author: Lancaster, Meredith Year: 2015 In 1944, Marcel Duchamp organized a widely publicized exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City, The Imagery of Chess. This thesis will explore The Imagery of Chess exhibition in terms of the intertwined aspects of Duchamp’s identity: artist, chess master, publicist of art, and curator. Using chess as a paradigm, the trajectory of Duchamp’s interest in chess as an object to chess as a process will be traced. This thesis will argue that the exhibition synthesized the “successive moves” of Duchamp’s career as an artist, chess master, publicist of art, and curator while popularizing European avant-garde art in the eyes of the American art public. The Imagery of Chess also served as a precedent for two subsequent performances in which Duchamp participated in the 1960s: his chess performance with Eve Babitz in 1963 at the Pasadena Art Museum and the 1968 Reunion performance with John Cage. Title: From Art to Performance: Marcel Duchamp’s Imagery of Chess Exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery Author: Lancaster, Meredith Year: 2015 In 1944, Marcel Duchamp organized a widely publicized exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City, The Imagery of Chess. This thesis will explore The Imagery of Chess exhibition in terms of the intertwined aspects of Duchamp’s identity: artist, chess master, publicist of art, and curator. Using chess as a paradigm, the trajectory of Duchamp’s interest in chess as an object to chess as a process will be traced. This thesis will argue that the exhibition synthesized the “successive moves” of Duchamp’s career as an artist, chess master, publicist of art, and curator while popularizing European avant-garde art in the eyes of the American art public. The Imagery of Chess also served as a precedent for two subsequent performances in which Duchamp participated in the 1960s: his chess performance with Eve Babitz in 1963 at the Pasadena Art Museum and the 1968 Reunion performance with John Cage. Close

• 2. [Article] A Painter of the Absurd: Reading Through and Beyond Eugène Ionesco's Humanism

  The Theatre of the Absurd often has been considered the reflection of a deconstructionist gesture, a negation of the existent theatrical norms, therefore an end in itself without any prospect of possible ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: A Painter of the Absurd: Reading Through and Beyond Eugène Ionesco's Humanism Author: M'Enesti, Ana-Maria Year: 2015 The Theatre of the Absurd often has been considered the reflection of a deconstructionist gesture, a negation of the existent theatrical norms, therefore an end in itself without any prospect of possible alternatives or remedies. While this may be partially true, the entropy inherent to the absurd does not adhere to a mechanically formal posture; rather, the "purposeless wandering", in Eugène Ionesco's case, points, through humor (Ce formidable bordel), toward a longing for meaning, deeply rooted in the human being. This very longing is the crux of Ionesco's humanism. For him suffering (Le Roi se meurt), as the offshoot of the human being's finite condition and the affect that bonds the community, is intertwined with an unexplained feeling of wonderment--an opening to contemplation of the infinite. The merging of suffering and wonderment that suffuses Ionesco's textual and visual works presents the field in which his vision of a metaphysical humanism must find form. Art, in Ionesco's perspective, as the expression of being and the witness of its time (Rhinocéros), can be understood as a redemptive medium, a hope for humanism. Through the interplay of text (plays, reflections and short stories), image (drawings, gouaches and lithographs) and performance, this dissertation explores themes, imagery and structures that reflect Ionesco's paradoxical view on humanism. Thus, in light of interdisciplinary readings, I identify archetypal images recurrent in Ionesco's works and his subversive interpretation of these images as revelatory of the author-painter's inner search for meaning. This quest, which is the unifying principle throughout Ionesco's work, is revealed in themes spanning from the entropy of language (La Cantatrice chauve, Les Chaises) to the sacrificial act of substituting for the other (Maximilien Kolbe). In this ultimate act of testimony, Ionesco depicts Emmanuel Lévinas' ethics wherein the self becomes a "hostage" of the other, vulnerable at the encounter with the other. My analysis of Ionesco's humanism continues beyond his works with a reading of the historicized absurd and humanism in the works of two contemporary diasporic playwrights: Matéi Visniec and Saviana Stanescu. Title: A Painter of the Absurd: Reading Through and Beyond Eugène Ionesco's Humanism Author: M'Enesti, Ana-Maria Year: 2015 The Theatre of the Absurd often has been considered the reflection of a deconstructionist gesture, a negation of the existent theatrical norms, therefore an end in itself without any prospect of possible alternatives or remedies. While this may be partially true, the entropy inherent to the absurd does not adhere to a mechanically formal posture; rather, the "purposeless wandering", in Eugène Ionesco's case, points, through humor (Ce formidable bordel), toward a longing for meaning, deeply rooted in the human being. This very longing is the crux of Ionesco's humanism. For him suffering (Le Roi se meurt), as the offshoot of the human being's finite condition and the affect that bonds the community, is intertwined with an unexplained feeling of wonderment--an opening to contemplation of the infinite. The merging of suffering and wonderment that suffuses Ionesco's textual and visual works presents the field in which his vision of a metaphysical humanism must find form. Art, in Ionesco's perspective, as the expression of being and the witness of its time (Rhinocéros), can be understood as a redemptive medium, a hope for humanism. Through the interplay of text (plays, reflections and short stories), image (drawings, gouaches and lithographs) and performance, this dissertation explores themes, imagery and structures that reflect Ionesco's paradoxical view on humanism. Thus, in light of interdisciplinary readings, I identify archetypal images recurrent in Ionesco's works and his subversive interpretation of these images as revelatory of the author-painter's inner search for meaning. This quest, which is the unifying principle throughout Ionesco's work, is revealed in themes spanning from the entropy of language (La Cantatrice chauve, Les Chaises) to the sacrificial act of substituting for the other (Maximilien Kolbe). In this ultimate act of testimony, Ionesco depicts Emmanuel Lévinas' ethics wherein the self becomes a "hostage" of the other, vulnerable at the encounter with the other. My analysis of Ionesco's humanism continues beyond his works with a reading of the historicized absurd and humanism in the works of two contemporary diasporic playwrights: Matéi Visniec and Saviana Stanescu. Close

• 3. [Article] Uncovering Flow: Choreographic Structures that Support Flow Characteristics in Dance Performance

  This choreographic research identifies and examines triggers that can induce flow, as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, through a creative process and performance, illuminating a type of experience that ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Uncovering Flow: Choreographic Structures that Support Flow Characteristics in Dance Performance Author: Zoller, Jessica Year: 2015 This choreographic research identifies and examines triggers that can induce flow, as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, through a creative process and performance, illuminating a type of experience that supports awareness of flow characteristics in a dance environment. The methodology documents qualitative phases of self-reflection, interviews with current performing artists, and discussions with dancers that assisted in identifying key flow triggers, informing movement explorations that culminated in a new dance piece and performance. Flow triggers identified through this process were imagery, environment, awareness of audience, and touch, which were explored with the aid of aerial hammocks to create a tactile experience for the dancers in the work. By exploring flow triggers within the creative process the performers experienced and reflected upon flow characteristics, often applying personal triggers to find deeper focus within the dance. This study may inform artists and educators interested in a flow experience in their creative process. Title: Uncovering Flow: Choreographic Structures that Support Flow Characteristics in Dance Performance Author: Zoller, Jessica Year: 2015 This choreographic research identifies and examines triggers that can induce flow, as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, through a creative process and performance, illuminating a type of experience that supports awareness of flow characteristics in a dance environment. The methodology documents qualitative phases of self-reflection, interviews with current performing artists, and discussions with dancers that assisted in identifying key flow triggers, informing movement explorations that culminated in a new dance piece and performance. Flow triggers identified through this process were imagery, environment, awareness of audience, and touch, which were explored with the aid of aerial hammocks to create a tactile experience for the dancers in the work. By exploring flow triggers within the creative process the performers experienced and reflected upon flow characteristics, often applying personal triggers to find deeper focus within the dance. This study may inform artists and educators interested in a flow experience in their creative process. Close

• 4. [Article] Sensuous Devotion as the Site of Spiritual Crisis in Wilfred Owen

  56 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of English and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Winter 2015...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Sensuous Devotion as the Site of Spiritual Crisis in Wilfred Owen Author: Vance, Robyn Year: 2015 56 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of English and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Winter 2015. Title: Sensuous Devotion as the Site of Spiritual Crisis in Wilfred Owen Author: Vance, Robyn Year: 2015 56 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of English and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Winter 2015. Close

• 5. [Article] Notions of Progress: The Framing of Women in the Arab Spring

  The Arab Spring marked a new age of international political participation and support, facilitated by the wide circulation of imagery via social and mass media. Many in the West found themselves in ideological ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Notions of Progress: The Framing of Women in the Arab Spring Author: Strait, Laura Year: 2014 The Arab Spring marked a new age of international political participation and support, facilitated by the wide circulation of imagery via social and mass media. Many in the West found themselves in ideological agreement with the political efforts of the protests, upholding the U.S. rhetorical tenets of democracy and freedom of speech. The visual framing of the Arab Spring in U.S. news media played a crucial role in forging this ideological consensus. My thesis focuses specifically on the visual framing of women in the Egyptian uprising by exploring the Western news portrayal of the presence of women in the Egyptian political sphere. In order to ground my assessment of Western perceptions, I conduct a content analysis of coverage of the Egyptian uprising protests from Getty and AP photography databases. My analysis is also supported and influenced by a rigorous theoretical foundation in framing theory, Orientalism, and postcolonial feminist theory. Title: Notions of Progress: The Framing of Women in the Arab Spring Author: Strait, Laura Year: 2014 The Arab Spring marked a new age of international political participation and support, facilitated by the wide circulation of imagery via social and mass media. Many in the West found themselves in ideological agreement with the political efforts of the protests, upholding the U.S. rhetorical tenets of democracy and freedom of speech. The visual framing of the Arab Spring in U.S. news media played a crucial role in forging this ideological consensus. My thesis focuses specifically on the visual framing of women in the Egyptian uprising by exploring the Western news portrayal of the presence of women in the Egyptian political sphere. In order to ground my assessment of Western perceptions, I conduct a content analysis of coverage of the Egyptian uprising protests from Getty and AP photography databases. My analysis is also supported and influenced by a rigorous theoretical foundation in framing theory, Orientalism, and postcolonial feminist theory. Close

• 6. [Article] Remote Sensing Technologies and Techniques for Parks and Historic Asset Management in Albany, Oregon

  The City of Albany, Oregon has iden ed three main objec ves to assist city sta to manage, analyze, and visualize historic aerial images for the purposes of parks and recrea on, as well as manage historic ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Remote Sensing Technologies and Techniques for Parks and Historic Asset Management in Albany, Oregon Author: Major, James, Kohler, Nick, Behrens, Syler Year: 2017 The City of Albany, Oregon has iden ed three main objec ves to assist city sta to manage, analyze, and visualize historic aerial images for the purposes of parks and recrea on, as well as manage historic assets. The University of Oregon Remote Sensing class, Geography 486/586, supported these e orts by genera ng the frameworks for these projects, mostly as descrip ons of proof of concept projects. Sample outputs from these projects, along with detailed descrip ons of how to recreate and expand upon them can help the city and its ci zens going forward as the technologies and techniques described within become more available and accessible, in both extent and cost. An example of this is LIDAR technology. LIDAR will become more common in the near future, allowing for ongoing change detec on and analysis. One of the class’s main objec ves was to look at the future possibili es and uses for remotely sensed data for park management and planning, for which LIDAR may prove to be cri cally important. Another important goal for the class was to examine the possibili es of remote sensing technology in historic asset management. Students worked on data storage and management techniques, including the crea on of databases and websites that can store and disseminate informa on as needed or desired. Another project explored the manipula on of historic aerial imagery using current technologies such as Structure from Mo on to create digital orthophotos and three-dimensional so ware to show what the City of Albany looked like from the air over eighty years ago.The class iden ed three objec ves to help Albany manage, analyze, and visualize historic aerial images for the purposes of parks and recrea on, as well as manage historic assets. These objec ves are: 1. Create a database of geospa ally registered images and maps. 2. Provide analysis and visualiza ons for park and historic asset management and planning. 3. Discuss future needs and possibili es for the use of remote sensing technologies for park and historic asset management and planning. In order to sa sfy these goals, students completed individual nal projects that explored speci c ways to assist the City of Albany with their objec ves. Student projects can be classi ed into three general categories: Uses of current remote sensing technologies, manipula on of historical imagery with current technologies, and data storage and management. Title: Remote Sensing Technologies and Techniques for Parks and Historic Asset Management in Albany, Oregon Author: Major, James, Kohler, Nick, Behrens, Syler Year: 2017 The City of Albany, Oregon has iden ed three main objec ves to assist city sta to manage, analyze, and visualize historic aerial images for the purposes of parks and recrea on, as well as manage historic assets. The University of Oregon Remote Sensing class, Geography 486/586, supported these e orts by genera ng the frameworks for these projects, mostly as descrip ons of proof of concept projects. Sample outputs from these projects, along with detailed descrip ons of how to recreate and expand upon them can help the city and its ci zens going forward as the technologies and techniques described within become more available and accessible, in both extent and cost. An example of this is LIDAR technology. LIDAR will become more common in the near future, allowing for ongoing change detec on and analysis. One of the class’s main objec ves was to look at the future possibili es and uses for remotely sensed data for park management and planning, for which LIDAR may prove to be cri cally important. Another important goal for the class was to examine the possibili es of remote sensing technology in historic asset management. Students worked on data storage and management techniques, including the crea on of databases and websites that can store and disseminate informa on as needed or desired. Another project explored the manipula on of historic aerial imagery using current technologies such as Structure from Mo on to create digital orthophotos and three-dimensional so ware to show what the City of Albany looked like from the air over eighty years ago.The class iden ed three objec ves to help Albany manage, analyze, and visualize historic aerial images for the purposes of parks and recrea on, as well as manage historic assets. These objec ves are: 1. Create a database of geospa ally registered images and maps. 2. Provide analysis and visualiza ons for park and historic asset management and planning. 3. Discuss future needs and possibili es for the use of remote sensing technologies for park and historic asset management and planning. In order to sa sfy these goals, students completed individual nal projects that explored speci c ways to assist the City of Albany with their objec ves. Student projects can be classi ed into three general categories: Uses of current remote sensing technologies, manipula on of historical imagery with current technologies, and data storage and management. Close

• 7. [Article] Antagonistic Cooperation: Prose in American Poetry

  Poets and critics have long agreed that any perceived differences between poetry and prose are not essential to those modes: both are comprised of words, both may be arranged typographically in various ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Antagonistic Cooperation: Prose in American Poetry Author: LeRud, Elizabeth Year: 2017 Poets and critics have long agreed that any perceived differences between poetry and prose are not essential to those modes: both are comprised of words, both may be arranged typographically in various ways—in lines, in paragraphs of sentences, or otherwise—and both draw freely from the complete range of literary styles and tools, like rhythm, sound patterning, focalization, figures, imagery, narration, or address. Yet still, in modern American literature, poetry and prose remain entrenched as a binary, one just as likely to be invoked as fact by writers and scholars as by casual readers. I argue that this binary is not only prevalent but also productive for modern notions of poetry, the root of many formal innovations of the past two centuries, like the prose poem and free verse. Further, for the poets considered in this study, the poetry/prose binary is generative precisely because it is flawed, offering an opportunity for an aesthetic critique. “Antagonistic Cooperation: Prose in American Poetry” uncovers a history of innovative writing that traverses the divide between poetry and prose, writing that critiques the poetry/prose binary by combining conventions of each. These texts reveal how poetry and prose are similar, but they also explore why they seem different and even have different effects. When these writers’ texts examine this binary, they do so not only for aesthetic reasons but also to question the social and political binaries of modern American life—like rich/poor, white/black, male/female, gay/straight, natural/artificial, even living/dead—and these convergences of prose and poetry are a textual “space” each writer creates for representing those explorations. Ultimately, these texts neither choose between poetry and prose nor do they homogenize the two, affirming instead the complex effects that even faulty distinctions may have had historically, and still have, on literature—as on life. By confronting differences without reducing or erasing them, these texts imagine ways to negotiate and overcome modes of ignorance, invisibility, and oppression that may result from these flawed yet powerful dichotomies. Title: Antagonistic Cooperation: Prose in American Poetry Author: LeRud, Elizabeth Year: 2017 Poets and critics have long agreed that any perceived differences between poetry and prose are not essential to those modes: both are comprised of words, both may be arranged typographically in various ways—in lines, in paragraphs of sentences, or otherwise—and both draw freely from the complete range of literary styles and tools, like rhythm, sound patterning, focalization, figures, imagery, narration, or address. Yet still, in modern American literature, poetry and prose remain entrenched as a binary, one just as likely to be invoked as fact by writers and scholars as by casual readers. I argue that this binary is not only prevalent but also productive for modern notions of poetry, the root of many formal innovations of the past two centuries, like the prose poem and free verse. Further, for the poets considered in this study, the poetry/prose binary is generative precisely because it is flawed, offering an opportunity for an aesthetic critique. “Antagonistic Cooperation: Prose in American Poetry” uncovers a history of innovative writing that traverses the divide between poetry and prose, writing that critiques the poetry/prose binary by combining conventions of each. These texts reveal how poetry and prose are similar, but they also explore why they seem different and even have different effects. When these writers’ texts examine this binary, they do so not only for aesthetic reasons but also to question the social and political binaries of modern American life—like rich/poor, white/black, male/female, gay/straight, natural/artificial, even living/dead—and these convergences of prose and poetry are a textual “space” each writer creates for representing those explorations. Ultimately, these texts neither choose between poetry and prose nor do they homogenize the two, affirming instead the complex effects that even faulty distinctions may have had historically, and still have, on literature—as on life. By confronting differences without reducing or erasing them, these texts imagine ways to negotiate and overcome modes of ignorance, invisibility, and oppression that may result from these flawed yet powerful dichotomies. Close

• 8. [Article] The Interaction of Emotion and Gender on the Social Amplification of Risk: Why Twitter?

  Micro blogging sites such as Twitter have fundamentally changed the way that individuals communicate and spread information, with greater speed and greater representation of how affected individuals feel ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: The Interaction of Emotion and Gender on the Social Amplification of Risk: Why Twitter? Author: Morganstern, Arielle Year: 2016 Micro blogging sites such as Twitter have fundamentally changed the way that individuals communicate and spread information, with greater speed and greater representation of how affected individuals feel about given situations. By seeking information that is available on Twitter, individuals are constructing their opinions based on a large source of data from their peers. Laypeople are now influential amplification agents during unfolding crises. Factors that amplify or attenuate perceptions of risk may have far-reaching implications for risk communication research within emerging new social media contexts. In order to explore these factors, we experimentally manipulated content about risk information, specific emotion, and emotional imagery via hypothetical Twitter community event pages and measured risk perceptions, behavioral intentions, and subjective emotions that may accompany the amplification or attenuation of risk through social media. Across three experimental studies, emotion increased the seeking and sharing of information and behavior associated with risk prevention and regulation during crisis communication via experimental Twitter feeds. Gender was a substantial factor that impacted subjective emotion, risk, and behavior. Females demonstrated higher scores than males on the majority of these dependent measures when anger and sadness were induced (Studies 1 and 2) and when only anger was manipulated (Study 3). This attests to the significant impact that gender has for processing emotion in crisis communication. Emotion and risk influenced each other recursively for information seeking and sharing behavior, and emotion content increased subjective emotion compared to information content. Spokesperson strategies effectively reduced negative emotion, information seeking and sharing, information generation, and regulatory action related to the risk event. The present research suggests that evidence-based strategies may be applicable in the domain of social media crisis management. It is imperative that we further investigate the interplay of emotion and information as underlying mechanisms in relation to how information diffusion operates in new social media, as we do not know how perceptions of risk may be generated or altered in this relatively unexplored domain. Title: The Interaction of Emotion and Gender on the Social Amplification of Risk: Why Twitter? Author: Morganstern, Arielle Year: 2016 Micro blogging sites such as Twitter have fundamentally changed the way that individuals communicate and spread information, with greater speed and greater representation of how affected individuals feel about given situations. By seeking information that is available on Twitter, individuals are constructing their opinions based on a large source of data from their peers. Laypeople are now influential amplification agents during unfolding crises. Factors that amplify or attenuate perceptions of risk may have far-reaching implications for risk communication research within emerging new social media contexts. In order to explore these factors, we experimentally manipulated content about risk information, specific emotion, and emotional imagery via hypothetical Twitter community event pages and measured risk perceptions, behavioral intentions, and subjective emotions that may accompany the amplification or attenuation of risk through social media. Across three experimental studies, emotion increased the seeking and sharing of information and behavior associated with risk prevention and regulation during crisis communication via experimental Twitter feeds. Gender was a substantial factor that impacted subjective emotion, risk, and behavior. Females demonstrated higher scores than males on the majority of these dependent measures when anger and sadness were induced (Studies 1 and 2) and when only anger was manipulated (Study 3). This attests to the significant impact that gender has for processing emotion in crisis communication. Emotion and risk influenced each other recursively for information seeking and sharing behavior, and emotion content increased subjective emotion compared to information content. Spokesperson strategies effectively reduced negative emotion, information seeking and sharing, information generation, and regulatory action related to the risk event. The present research suggests that evidence-based strategies may be applicable in the domain of social media crisis management. It is imperative that we further investigate the interplay of emotion and information as underlying mechanisms in relation to how information diffusion operates in new social media, as we do not know how perceptions of risk may be generated or altered in this relatively unexplored domain. Close

• 9. [Article] The Tension of the Real: Visuality in Nineteenth Century British Realism

  This dissertation begins from the problem that is built into realism as a literary genre: its commitment to capturing the unfiltered circumstances of human life will always be at odds with the artifice ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: The Tension of the Real: Visuality in Nineteenth Century British Realism Author: Cornwall, Amanda Year: 2015 This dissertation begins from the problem that is built into realism as a literary genre: its commitment to capturing the unfiltered circumstances of human life will always be at odds with the artifice of its representational constructs and its fiction. In this study, I consider visuality as a central, productive part of this problem and seek intensely visual moments within realist novels where realism wages its own struggle with itself as it attempts to navigate its limitations and push forward its possibilities. These moments pause the narrative as they prioritize picture over action. As descriptive moments work to render visual images through words on the printed page, they are fraught with realism’s struggle to use the artifice of fiction as a means for approximating an ostensible reality. Facing this difficulty, realist practitioners take up vastly different strategies. In this project, I investigate why and how visuality is deployed so differently by those who chose to write in this mode. I seek that which is piercing in the nineteenth-century realist novel by locating moments of crisis and tension, both within the plot and also within the strategies of the stories’ delivery. These are moments where the novel becomes troubled by the visual, revealing the potential and limit of the image. In realism, visuality encompasses a broad and varied array of strategies, including instances of enargeia and ekphrasis, passages that seek to evoke a sense of place or milieu through a rich catalog of visual detail, expressive self-renderings in the dialog and inner monologs of the characters, explorations of the embodied act of seeing, and moments where perception fails or visual description exposes itself as insufficient. I consider a small group of canonical authors: George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad, who are of critical importance to this genre and to nineteenth century realism, as it moves towards modernism. By examining moments in their novels where descriptive imagery is at its most acute, I seek to explain how moments of intense visuality are crucial nodes where each author, using unique and distinctive methods, negotiates the problem of realist representation. Title: The Tension of the Real: Visuality in Nineteenth Century British Realism Author: Cornwall, Amanda Year: 2015 This dissertation begins from the problem that is built into realism as a literary genre: its commitment to capturing the unfiltered circumstances of human life will always be at odds with the artifice of its representational constructs and its fiction. In this study, I consider visuality as a central, productive part of this problem and seek intensely visual moments within realist novels where realism wages its own struggle with itself as it attempts to navigate its limitations and push forward its possibilities. These moments pause the narrative as they prioritize picture over action. As descriptive moments work to render visual images through words on the printed page, they are fraught with realism’s struggle to use the artifice of fiction as a means for approximating an ostensible reality. Facing this difficulty, realist practitioners take up vastly different strategies. In this project, I investigate why and how visuality is deployed so differently by those who chose to write in this mode. I seek that which is piercing in the nineteenth-century realist novel by locating moments of crisis and tension, both within the plot and also within the strategies of the stories’ delivery. These are moments where the novel becomes troubled by the visual, revealing the potential and limit of the image. In realism, visuality encompasses a broad and varied array of strategies, including instances of enargeia and ekphrasis, passages that seek to evoke a sense of place or milieu through a rich catalog of visual detail, expressive self-renderings in the dialog and inner monologs of the characters, explorations of the embodied act of seeing, and moments where perception fails or visual description exposes itself as insufficient. I consider a small group of canonical authors: George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad, who are of critical importance to this genre and to nineteenth century realism, as it moves towards modernism. By examining moments in their novels where descriptive imagery is at its most acute, I seek to explain how moments of intense visuality are crucial nodes where each author, using unique and distinctive methods, negotiates the problem of realist representation. Close