Ekphrasis in the Interaction Between Visual Art and Poetry: The Works of Imad Abu Ishtayeh and Shawqi Ghannam as a Case Study

Ekphrasis is defined as a precise textual description of a visual artwork that seeks to recreate it in detail, enabling the recipient to envision the artwork without viewing it directly. This study examines ekphrasis in the poetic works of Shawqi Ghannam inspired by the paintings of Imad Abu Ishtayeh. Ekphrasis is understood as the textual representation of a visual artwork, where meaning moves from image to poem through description, interpretation, and symbolic re-creation. The research focuses on how visual elements from Abu Ishtayeh’s paintings are transferred into Ghannam’s poetic structures, and how this process helps produce meanings connected to Palestinian identity, memory, and resistance. Using a descriptive, analytical, and comparative approach, the study argues that the relationship between the two artists is based on visual verbal reference, moving from a visual source to a poetic target. It also shows that realistic ekphrasis is more prominent than mental ekphrasis, since the poems depend on describing people, places, events, and moments as meaningful units rather than on abstract reflection alone. The study concludes that Ghannam’s poems do not merely describe the paintings, but select and intensify their key elements. Symbols such as the woman, Jerusalem, the dove, the cactus, the keffiyeh, and wheat stalks are transformed into charged poetic signs carrying identity and collective memory.