Edvard Munch’s Toponymic Codes

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_1117
dc.title	Edvard Munch’s Toponymic Codes
dc.contributor.author	Berman Patricia G.
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/venezia-arti/2017/1/edvard-munchs-toponymic-codes/
dc.description.abstract	The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) created upwards of 1789 paintings of which only 14 are inscribed with toponyms. The extreme rarity of place names in his work invites consideration. In some cases, these place names signify the direct witnessing of a location or a person. More interestingly, the toponyms operate as literary devices that focus attention on the artist’s sickness and health, on physical collapse and rebirth. Interpreting toponyms as forms of ‘time travel’ and ‘space travel’, the article considers Munch’s signatures and toponyms as elements in the formation of his public biography.
dc.relation.ispartof	Venezia Arti
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 26 \| December 2017
dc.issued	2017-12-20
dc.dateSubmitted	2017-07-24
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2385-2720
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.14277/2385-2720/VA-26-17-13
dc.peer-review	no
dc.subject	Clinic
dc.subject	Clinic
dc.subject	Edvard Munch
dc.subject	Edvard Munch
dc.subject	Sanatorium
dc.subject	Sanatorium
dc.subject	Self-staging
dc.subject	Self-staging
dc.subject	Toponym
dc.subject	Toponym

Research Article
open access

Patricia G. Berman Wellesley College, USA

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abstract

The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) created upwards of 1789 paintings of which only 14 are inscribed with toponyms. The extreme rarity of place names in his work invites consideration. In some cases, these place names signify the direct witnessing of a location or a person. More interestingly, the toponyms operate as literary devices that focus attention on the artist’s sickness and health, on physical collapse and rebirth. Interpreting toponyms as forms of ‘time travel’ and ‘space travel’, the article considers Munch’s signatures and toponyms as elements in the formation of his public biography.

Published

Dec. 20, 2017

Submitted

July 24, 2017

Language

Keywords: Toponym • Edvard Munch • Self-staging • Sanatorium • Clinic

permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2385-2720/VA-26-17-13

Copyright: © 2017 Patricia G. Berman. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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