(a)wry Views
Anamorphosis, Cervantes and the Early Picaresque

David R. Castillo (Author)

9781557532275

Hardback, published 1 April 2001

182 pages, Illustrations, ports.
23.6 x 16.1 x 1.7 cm, 0.458 kg

The term anamorphosis, from the greek ana (again) and morphe (shape), designates a variety of perspective experiments that can be traced back to the artistic developments of the 1500's and 1600's. Anamorphic devices challenge viewers to experience different forms of perceptual oscillation and uncertainty. Images shift in front of the eyes of puzzled spectators as they move from the center of the representation to the margins, or from one side to the other. (A) Wry Views demonstrates that much of the literature of the Spanish Golden Age is susceptible, and indeed requires, oblique readings (as in anamorphosis).