Reconstruction of Photographic Images in the Novel Sixty Lights by Gail Jones

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the neo­Victorian novel “Sixty Lights” (2004) by the modern Australian writer Gail Jones. The purpose of the study is to identify the role of photographic images presented in the form of photographic ekphrasis and further substantiate the genre status of the novel. The plot centers on the history of the formation and development of photography in the second half of the XIXth century, the history intertwined with the life of the main character, Lucy Strange, who became a professional photographer. With the help of photography, or “writing of light” (Jean Baudrillard), the world is learned and meaning is brought into it: by reconstructing images of reality through vision and photography (from royalty and family members to everyday objects), Lucy creates documents of the era, documents of memory, intended to be “read” by future generations. In Victorian Britain, photography became one of the brightest sociocultural symbols of the era, embodying such concepts as memory, death, identity, etc. The use of the methodology of historical, literary and intermedial analysis made it possible for the authors to identify the genre­forming potential of photographic ekphrasis and, on this basis, define the genre modification of the novel “Sixty Lights” by G. Jones as photo­ekphrastic, and its kind as a photo­reconstruction novel.