Literary Theory

Can a drawing be a haiku? This post explores Clouds, Glands, Tributaries, a work that juxtaposes scientific diagrams of storm clouds, eyelid glands, and river systems. It's a "visual haiku" that uses the "power of disproportion" to unlock a subjective and poetic meditation on water.

From Laurence Sterne diagramming his own plot in the 18th century to Kurt Vonnegut graphing the "shape" of Cinderella, the diagram has long been a secret key to understanding literature. We explore how maps, charts, and sentence diagrams reveal the hidden architecture of the world's most complex stories.