The Author as Artist: Invented Art & Authenticity in Fiction

Abstract

This thesis investigates the uses and reception of invented artworks in prose fiction through three forms of writing: a catalogue for an imaginary exhibition of fictional artworks; a series of critical essays; and The Apollo of Trieste, a novel which puts this research into practice.

Although ‘invented artworks’ are defined as those which are purely the product of an author’s imagination, this project also investigates the phenomenon whereby fictional artworks may subsequently take on tangible form, for example when a novel is adapted for television.

Written from the perspective of a Classical art historian, this thesis explores the crossover between art history and English literature, including the argument that art-history writing is itself a form of fiction. It argues that art-fiction not only draws on art-historical research, thus transmitting academic research trends into popular culture, but also actively speaks to debates in the fields of art history and Classical reception.

In this thesis, I explore how writers have used fictional artworks to challenge and supplement the mainstream narrative of art history by foregrounding marginalised groups of artists, including working-class art forgers. I also explore how invented artworks within the Classical tradition have been used to address aspects of Classical reception, including connotations of ‘whiteness’ and the adoption of Antinous as a gay icon.

By drawing on real-life cases of art forgery, as well as the work of theorists on literary forgery, I show how novels about art forgery challenge our notions of artistic and personal authenticity, including the role of art in the reinvention of the self. The importance of cultural capital in ‘class passing’ is a fundamental theme in The Apollo of Trieste, based on the career of the art historian Johann Winckelmann, in which parallel eighteenth-century and twentieth-century narratives are linked by the same artwork: an invented Roman sculpture of Antinous.

Date of Award	8 Jul 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Edge Hill University
Supervisor	KIM WILTSHIRE (Director of Studies) & ZAYNEB ALLAK (Supervisor)