Abstract

This study investigates what the processes of reading photographic images and literary texts share in common. A number of seminal theoretical texts published since the 1960s are used to examine the problematic from three different angles: authority, social convention, and narrativity. These texts by theorists like Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin, Wolfgang Iser or Stanley Fish are confronted with artistic works and with each other, and thereby help to renegotiate persistent problems in traditional epistemological distinctions between media like the sequential text and the still image. The primary sources are Julio Cortazar's short story ‘Las babas del diablo' (1959), Michelangelo Antonioni's film 'Blowup' (1966), James Agee's and Walker Evans' 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' (1941), as well as artistic photographs by Duane Michals, Jeff Wall and Cindy Sherman.

Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.