Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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strongly connected to the Romantic Sublime. Michael Gamer’s Romanticism and the
Gothic: Genre, Reception and Canon Formation interrelates the Romantic and Gothic
traditions, claiming that Romantic literature is associated with masculinity and “high
culture”, while Gothic literature is associated with femininity and “popular culture”. 13
Most useful in shedding light on A State of Siege in its treatment of the irrational, was
Wolfgang Kayser’s classic study The Grotesque in Art and Literature. 14 From these
various sources then, I derived my basic vocabulary for discussions of Romanticism and
the Gothic in Ward’s work. Such studies covered aspects of production and reception
as well as textual characteristics. They also explored more general issues such as values
and world-view.
Research and Literature Review: Expressionism
Since Ward has often referred to his interest in Expressionist art, in particular the work
of Käthe Kollwitz, I spent some time familiarising myself with the work of the major
Expressionist artists. In Munich, I visited the Staatliche Graphische Sammlungen,
where I was given access to Expressionist drawings and prints, including drawings by
Lyonel Feininger and August Macke, sketches and watercolours by Franz Marc, and
charcoal drawings by Käthe Kollwitz. Most of the Expressionist prints in the collection
were early ones by the artists of die Brücke, and I was able to view a wide range of
prints by artists such as Max Pechstein, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirschner, Karl
Schmidt-Rotluff and Emil Nolde. Das Lenbachhaus in Munich houses a large
collection of art works by a later Expressionist group who were based in Munich, der
Blaue Reiter. This collection includes work by Gabriel Münter, Wassily Kandinsky,
Paul Klee, Franz Marc, August Macke and Wladimir von Bechtejeff. I was particularly
interested in the hinterglas paintings (which utilise a kind of traditional glass painting
technique peculiar to the region) of Münter and Kandinsky. What was most striking
about the paintings was their brilliant colour and clarity, and these qualities reminded
me very much of some of the images of What Dreams May Come. As well as viewing
Expressionist works, I also looked at the extensive collection of works in das
Lenbachhaus, by German Romantic painters who had influenced the Expressionists, in
particular, Louis Corinth and Max Slevogt.
13
Michael Gamer, Romanticism and the Gothic: Genre, Reception and Canon Formation (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2000).
14
Wolfgang Kayser, The Grotesque in Art and Literature, trans. Ulrich Weisstein (Bloomington, USA:
Indiana University Press, 1957).