Pictures of Lyly: digital corruptions and biographical truths
Edited book (chapter)
Chapter Title | Pictures of Lyly: digital corruptions and biographical truths |
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Book Chapter Category | Edited book (chapter) |
ERA Publisher ID | 1417 |
Book Title | Recovering history through fact and fiction: forgotten lives |
Authors | |
Author | Johnson, Laurie |
Editors | Baker, Dallas john, Brien, Donna Lee and Sulway, Nike |
Page Range | 146-157 |
Chapter Number | 12 |
Number of Pages | 12 |
Year | 2017 |
Publisher | Cambridge Scholars Publishing |
Place of Publication | Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom |
ISBN | 9781527503250 |
Web Address (URL) | http://www.cambridgescholars.com/recovering-history-through-fact-and-fiction |
Abstract | In the digital age, biographers invariably seek to furnish their scholarship with images of their subjects. When dealing with subjects from eras preceding the photographic age, there is the blessing provided by portraiture, yet what is the fate of a biography where no portrait exists? In the case of early modern subjects, where the period was marked by portraiture being used as a marker of status and influence, could the absence of a portrait signify the unimportance of the subject? This essay will consider the case of John Lyly, playwright, poet, and rather less than successful courtier—his literary and dramatic influence on Shakespeare and others is without question, yet there has been no rush to produce Lyly biographies. I suggest this may be in part due to the fact that no portrait was ever painted of Lyly. This is an absence masked to some extent by Google Images, however, which produces numerous hits when searching for pictures of Lyly, all of which are incorrectly labelled. There are thus a number of pitfalls in using Google Images, or indeed any site of similar design and architecture, when seeking to compile visual support for a biography. With particular regard to Lyly, the desire to want to match an image to the life comes into conflict with his own explicit opposition to portraiture as a valid mode for the representation of living subjects. |
Keywords | John Lyly; biography; portraiture |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 470504. British and Irish literature |
430303. Biography | |
Public Notes | Files associated with this item cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions. |
Byline Affiliations | School of Arts and Communication |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q4840/pictures-of-lyly-digital-corruptions-and-biographical-truths
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