‘Look at it beside me’: Ekphrasis and the Illusion of Intimacy in Ciaran Carson’s Still Life (2019)

Abstract

Despite the publication of three books directly addressing the intersection between text and visual artworks — Fishing for Amber (1999), Shamrock Tea (2001), Still Life (2019) — Ciaran Carson’s work has not been given significant attention in terms of his contribution to the subject of ekphrastic poetry in Irish literature. Several texts, on the other hand, have been devoted to discussing his work in relation to the spatial, place-bound quality of his poetry and prose. This article seeks to bridge this gap by reframing the ekphrastic mode as the intimate but illusory coming into contact between author, reader, and work. Using the dual role of the ‘study’ as both a practice drawing and a private room, this paper argues Ciaran Carson’s final collection, Still Life, represents a new interpretation of how intimate connections in domestic spaces can be portrayed in Northern Irish literature.