The idea that illustrations cannot reproduce the text’s perspective seems to exist implicitly in many critiques of illustrations. Likely one of the most sophisticated arguments against illustration, this type of critique materializes in the Modernist period, in the comments of one of the most narratively conscious writers, Henry James.
However, even James’s critique is still not very explicit. In the Preface to The Golden Bowl, written for the New York Edition of this novel, James extensively emphasizes the importance of perspective for his practice of fiction and also criticizes the use of visual illustration. Even though his critique of illustration is not explicitly linked to the topic of perspective, it seems at least conceivable that part of James’s reservations against illustration has to do with the fact that illustrations often do not pay attention to the construction of perspective in fictional texts.
Works Cited
James, Henry. “Preface.” The Golden Bowl. Penguin Books, 2009.
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