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Beyond Description: Shapeshifting Ekphrasis and Feminist Reclamation of the Female Figure in a Selection of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry / AMANI ALGHORAIBI

Swansea University Author: AMANI ALGHORAIBI

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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUThesis.71505

Abstract

This thesis engages in a feminist reclamation of the female figure within nineteenth-century ekphrasis, investigating how women poets redefined the interplay between the visual and the verbal to challenge patriarchal depictions of women in both art and literature. Traditionally, ekphrasis—the verbal...

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Published: Swansea University 2026
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Barnaby, A., and Bohata, K.
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71505
first_indexed 2026-02-26T12:21:01Z
last_indexed 2026-02-26T12:21:01Z
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recordtype RisThesis
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spelling v2 71505 2026-02-26 Beyond Description: Shapeshifting Ekphrasis and Feminist Reclamation of the Female Figure in a Selection of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry 7986d15cc6eb171b50d06743272dde7b AMANI ALGHORAIBI AMANI ALGHORAIBI true false 2026-02-26 This thesis engages in a feminist reclamation of the female figure within nineteenth-century ekphrasis, investigating how women poets redefined the interplay between the visual and the verbal to challenge patriarchal depictions of women in both art and literature. Traditionally, ekphrasis—the verbal depiction of a visual image—has been associated with the male poet’s authoritative gaze. This study begins by analysing selected ekphrastic poems by the nineteenth-century painter-poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, where the female subject is portrayed as a passive object of aesthetic contemplation. In contrast, a selection of women poets from the same era—including Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Pfeiffer, Rosamund Marriott Watson, Felicia Hemans, Edith Wharton, Alice Meynell, and Michael Field—developed alternative ekphrastic strategies that resisted this objectification.Central to this exploration is the notion of shapeshifting ekphrasis: a versatile mode of writing that defies confinement and transforms static representations of women into dynamic sites of feminist critique. Through their reinterpretations of paintings and sculptures, these women poets destabilised the relationship between image and text, creating an ekphrastic approach that affirms female agency. Their poetry not only engaged with visual art but also challenged restrictive modes of representation across various media, such as music and sculpture, thereby offering alternative perspectives on the interpretation of the female figure. Despite the prominence of ekphrasis in nineteenth-century poetry, critical attention has predominantly focused on male poets, leaving the contributions of women largely unexplored. This thesis addresses that gap by illustrating how women transformed ekphrasis from a form of aesthetic control into a platform for feminist critique and self-expression. By tracing this evolution through the poetry of selected nineteenth-century women, the thesis demonstrates how their work not only contested patriarchal visual representations but also established a distinctly feminist form of ekphrastic writing that confronted the objectification of women and subverted aesthetic conventions through their verse. E-Thesis Swansea University Victorian poetry, nineteenth-century women’s poetry, feminist ekphrasis, ekphrasis, word and image studies, visual culture, the female gaze, representations of the female figure, intermediality 24 2 2026 2026-02-24 10.23889/SUThesis.71505 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Barnaby, A., and Bohata, K. Doctoral Ph.D Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Cultural Bureau Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Cultural Bureau 2026-02-26T12:26:55.1878093 2026-02-26T12:12:36.0473691 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - English Literature, Creative Writing AMANI ALGHORAIBI 1 71505__36318__c3a4a074ac2c4818b7f13d07d42fdffd.pdf 2025_Alghoraibi_A.final.71505.pdf 2026-02-26T12:20:20.4026565 Output 3545478 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true Copyright: the author, Amani Mohammed Alghoraibi, 2026 true eng
title Beyond Description: Shapeshifting Ekphrasis and Feminist Reclamation of the Female Figure in a Selection of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry
spellingShingle Beyond Description: Shapeshifting Ekphrasis and Feminist Reclamation of the Female Figure in a Selection of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry
AMANI ALGHORAIBI
title_short Beyond Description: Shapeshifting Ekphrasis and Feminist Reclamation of the Female Figure in a Selection of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry
title_full Beyond Description: Shapeshifting Ekphrasis and Feminist Reclamation of the Female Figure in a Selection of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry
title_fullStr Beyond Description: Shapeshifting Ekphrasis and Feminist Reclamation of the Female Figure in a Selection of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry
title_full_unstemmed Beyond Description: Shapeshifting Ekphrasis and Feminist Reclamation of the Female Figure in a Selection of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry
title_sort Beyond Description: Shapeshifting Ekphrasis and Feminist Reclamation of the Female Figure in a Selection of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry
author_id_str_mv 7986d15cc6eb171b50d06743272dde7b
author_id_fullname_str_mv 7986d15cc6eb171b50d06743272dde7b_***_AMANI ALGHORAIBI
author AMANI ALGHORAIBI
author2 AMANI ALGHORAIBI
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institution Swansea University
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department_str School of Culture and Communication - English Literature, Creative Writing{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - English Literature, Creative Writing
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description This thesis engages in a feminist reclamation of the female figure within nineteenth-century ekphrasis, investigating how women poets redefined the interplay between the visual and the verbal to challenge patriarchal depictions of women in both art and literature. Traditionally, ekphrasis—the verbal depiction of a visual image—has been associated with the male poet’s authoritative gaze. This study begins by analysing selected ekphrastic poems by the nineteenth-century painter-poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, where the female subject is portrayed as a passive object of aesthetic contemplation. In contrast, a selection of women poets from the same era—including Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Pfeiffer, Rosamund Marriott Watson, Felicia Hemans, Edith Wharton, Alice Meynell, and Michael Field—developed alternative ekphrastic strategies that resisted this objectification.Central to this exploration is the notion of shapeshifting ekphrasis: a versatile mode of writing that defies confinement and transforms static representations of women into dynamic sites of feminist critique. Through their reinterpretations of paintings and sculptures, these women poets destabilised the relationship between image and text, creating an ekphrastic approach that affirms female agency. Their poetry not only engaged with visual art but also challenged restrictive modes of representation across various media, such as music and sculpture, thereby offering alternative perspectives on the interpretation of the female figure. Despite the prominence of ekphrasis in nineteenth-century poetry, critical attention has predominantly focused on male poets, leaving the contributions of women largely unexplored. This thesis addresses that gap by illustrating how women transformed ekphrasis from a form of aesthetic control into a platform for feminist critique and self-expression. By tracing this evolution through the poetry of selected nineteenth-century women, the thesis demonstrates how their work not only contested patriarchal visual representations but also established a distinctly feminist form of ekphrastic writing that confronted the objectification of women and subverted aesthetic conventions through their verse.
published_date 2026-02-24T12:26:56Z
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