French Literature Reviews - 2026
A.-D. Marinescu, Spécularité déformante. Sur les traces d'un paradigme anti-mimétique de l'art
Art and Visual Culture
Alina-Daniela Marinescu, Spécularité déformante. Sur les traces d'un paradigme anti-mimétique de l'art
Paris: L'Harmattan, coll. "Critique littéraire", 2013.
EAN 9782343010533.
324 p.
Price 27EUR
Publisher's overview:
Long regarded as the emblem of artistic creation through its capacity to reproduce reality and generate images, the mirror challenges the very status of representation. While its presence in a text or a painting frequently highlights the poietic scenario, reflections distorted by various types of specular instruments express a rebellion against art as a mere copy of reality, opening the door to creative freedom and imaginary universes.
This study focuses on Greco-Roman antiquity and the French and Italian cultural spheres from the 13th to the 15th century.
Published by L'Harmattan in the Critique littéraire collection, this scholarly study examines how distorted reflections challenge traditional notions of mimesis across European cultural traditions. Alina-Daniela Marinescu explores the evolution of the mirror motif from a simple emblem of artistic reproduction into an instrument of rebellion against realism. By focusing on Greco-Roman antiquity alongside the French and Italian cultural spheres from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the book traces an intellectual trajectory that values creative freedom and the construction of imaginary universes over the mere copying of the visible world.
This volume will particularly interest students and scholars of art history, comparative literature, and aesthetics who investigate the theoretical foundations of representation and the poietics of creation. It helps readers navigate complex questions surrounding the status of the image and the reflexive devices employed by writers and painters before the modern era. By analyzing various specular instruments and their aesthetic implications, the author provides valuable context for understanding how pre-modern and Renaissance creators used distortion to interrogate the very nature of art and illusion.