{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.022187004754358162, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.043062200956938, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The case for Kittler: considering ekphrasis as recursion

ABSTRACT Friedrich Kittler’s media history is rarely employed by humanities scholars, who are often alienated by his disregard for literary content or humanistic concerns. This article makes the case for engaging with Kittler’s theories as a natural extension of the materialist turn common to a number of humanities disciplines. Here, I assemble a ‘toolkit’ from Kittler’s ideas of recursion and transposition, and the study of cultural techniques that has flowed from his works, in order to propose a new way to conceive of ekphrasis and approach ekphrastic verse. I -position ekphrasis as an informative example of recursion in action. I compare Kittler’s media history—and the insights yielded by the tools it offers us—to some of the most influential studies of ekphrasis and ekphrases, showing how a Kittlerian approach can shine a new light on the genre. I also offer a short illustrative example of applying these tools to ekphrastic work by analyzing Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s ‘A Sea Spell’, by which I also hope to demonstrate how Kittler’s ideas can assist twenty-first-century scholars in bridging the gap between our own medial situation and those in which our objects of study were produced.