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Medusa's Gaze and the Aesthetics of Fascination

2010; De Gruyter; Volume: 128; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1515/angl.2010.029

1865-8938

Sibylle Baumbach,

Visual Culture and Art Theory

This article explores the connection between the figure of Medusa and concepts of fascination. Evoking both attraction and repulsion and embracing concepts of beauty as well as of terror, Medusa not only continues to be a fascinating image, but also emerges as a product, an agent, and an image of fascination. The way in which the Gorgon has been represented over time can shed some light on the ways in which ‘fascination’ in images and texts works as well as help conceptualize changes in what is perceived as ‘fascinating’ or even petrifying. Chosen images of the Medusa or Medusamorphoses from literature, art and popular culture ranging from Ovid, William Drummond, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sylvia Plath, and Annie Lennox are discussed to further explore the fascinating quality of this figure, which becomes especially apparent in the interplay between visual and verbal representations, as well as to examine its continuous presentness in contemporary culture and to analyze the changing qualities of what has been termed the ‘Medusa effect’.