Initial Thoughts
When first faced with this brief, I was slightly overwhelmed at the amount of authors I did not recognise. Admittedly I am not a huge reader, so having to engage with a completely new text was going to be a challenge for me. I was familiar with a few of the names from studying english literature, for example Harper Lee and William Shakespeare, however when choosing an author I wanted to have a focus on forming my own opinions about my author from scratch. A recommended author that really caught my attention was Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities and it's visually rich way of telling the story. Others that I felt slightly drawn to were Angela Carter, and Edgar Allen Poem, mainly because of their gothic themes which I felt would be interesting to convey visually, using different medias to experiment with how atmosphere is created.
Author Research
Italo Calvino
Invisible Cities book cover by Caitlin Russell
Italo Calvino (1923-1985) was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. He is well known for his innovative styles of writing, for example, complex yet accessible plots, and his intense creativity when using description in his work, for example in his novel Invisible Cities. I had never heard of this author before starting the project, which seems strange now as I have come to learn that he is a very world famous novelist. It was Fred's recommendation of 'visually rich short stories' that drew me to this particular text, as I feel that it gives a lot of space for exploration of media and concepts. The fact that the text is very metaphor based, including hundreds of iconic quotes, has really inspired me to look deeper into who Calvino is, and more of his work.
"A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say."
Angela Carter
Angela Carter (1940-1992), was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works (referring to prose fiction which depicts the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society). She has been ranked one of Britain's best writers since 1945, having had her work launched into academic and critical discussion upon her untimely death to lung cancer in 1992. Having studied gcse's in english language and literature, I have stumbled across Angela Carter and had a preconceived idea of her gothic and somewhat controversial themes. However I have not read any of her works. Upon researching her, it is clear that the stories she creates, once again, create a lot of opportunity for exciting visuals, however I have already come across thousands of artworks relating to this and feel that it would be something of a struggle to illustrate a completely new and original take on it.
"Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people."
Edgar Allen Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, who's work, like Angela Carter is very centred around gothic themes. He is best known for his literary works such as The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” He is known as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator of the science fiction genre. Poe's reputation today is based mainly on his tales of terror and haunting poetry lyrics. I personally don't have much interest in Poe's work, I just felt that himself as an individual would be interesting to explore visually. From researching, I have to come find that his life was filled with bizarre and suspicious events that caused him to write the way he did. His death also is shrouded in conspiracy which I think is really interesting.
"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."
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