Estudios Irlandeses (Mar 2014)
‘With Courteous and Careful Eyes’: Eva Bourke’s Ekphrases
Abstract
This article considers the function of ekphrasis – which can be defined as the verbal representation of a visual representation – in the work of Irish poet Eva Bourke. The visual arts have featured prominently across much of Bourke’s work, and her ekphrastic poems, which eschew the traditionally gendered interpretations of ekphrasis that privilege “masculine” narrative over “feminine” image, suggest that the ekphrastic act develops differently when performed by a woman writer. Her poems celebrate the presence of the minute and detailed: a practice of looking that is born of disciplined, precise observation, and they often reflect upon painterly representations of domestic interiors and household items, valuing them for their usefulness and simplicity as well as their beauty. Moreover, the way in which Bourke approaches visual art embraces disorder and the “disjointed,” and takes into account the location of the artwork, suggesting that the ekphrastic encounter is not limited to a single gaze between poet and art object. Bourke’s art poems offer readers a multidimensional version of the ekphrastic experience, and demonstrate that ekphrasis continues to be a way for women poets in particular to examine anxieties that arise from questions of nationality and gender.
