Strategies of tension : A. Boissier's "Les amants électrisés par l'amour" (1797)
- The article analyses A. Boissier's image "Les Amants électrisés par l'amour" in view of the larger question of how something is able to arouse interest on first sight, but also in repeat encounters. Highlighting the engraving's didactic iconography, the article shows how it revolves around the solution to a riddle and uses a typical design of the Enlightenment to show the uncovering of a deception. As such, the engraving is part of a long tradition of showing (supposedly) supernatural events, more specifically the tradition of Magia naturalis. At the same time, the image contains dissonances and can be seen to simulate suspense through dichotomies that can be identified as antagonistic historical concepts. The article furthermore discusses the amalgamation of love and electricity in contemporary discourses and addresses the temporal dimension of the engraving, which constructs itself out of an absence, out of something yet unseen.
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| Author: | Rupert Gaderer |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-514103 |
| URL: | https://www.ici-berlin.org/oa/ci-01/gaderer_strategies-of-tension.pdf |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.25620/ci-01_05 |
| ISBN: | 978-3-85132-616-1 |
| Parent Title (English): | Tension/Spannung / ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey. - Wien : Turia + Kant 2010. - (Cultural Inquiry ; 1) - ISBN 978-3-85132-616-1 |
| Publisher: | Turia + Kant |
| Place of publication: | Wien |
| Document Type: | Part of a Book |
| Language: | English |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2019/10/15 |
| Year of first Publication: | 2010 |
| Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
| Release Date: | 2019/10/16 |
| Tag: | Boissier, A.; Boissier, A.: Les amants électrisés par l'amour; Wissenschaftsgeschichte Electricity; Enlightenment; History of science; Love; Tension |
| GND Keyword: | Spannung; Elektrizität; Wissenschaft; Geschichte 1750-1800; Aufklärung; Liebe <Motiv> |
| Page Number: | 16 |
| First Page: | 93 |
| Last Page: | 108 |
| HeBIS-PPN: | 455251924 |
| 8 Literatur / 80 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft / 800 Literatur und Rhetorik | |
| Sammlungen: | CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft |
| CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft / ICI Berlin | |
| Licence (German): |  Creative Commons - Namensnennung-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen |
