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Picturing ourselves : photography and autobiography
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ISBN: 0226731472 0226731464 9786611223984 0226731480 1281223980 9780226731483 9780226731476 9780226731469 9780226731469 Year: 1997 Publisher: Chicago (Ill.): University of Chicago press

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Abstract

Photography has transformed the way we picture ourselves. Although photographs seem to "prove" our existence at a given point in time, they also demonstrate the impossibility of framing our multiple and fragmented selves. As Linda Haverty Rugg convincingly shows, photography's double take on self-image mirrors the concerns of autobiographers, who see the self as simultaneously divided (in observing/being) and unified by the autobiographical act. Rugg tracks photography's impact on the formation of self-image through the study of four literary autobiographers concerned with the transformative power of photography. Obsessed with self-image, Mark Twain and August Strindberg both attempted (unsuccessfully) to integrate photographs into their autobiographies. While Twain encouraged photographers, he was wary of fakery and kept a fierce watch on the distribution of his photographic image. Strindberg, believing that photographs had occult power, preferred to photograph himself. Because of their experiences under National Socialism, Walter Benjamin and Christa Wolf feared the dangerously objectifying power of photographs and omitted them from their autobiographical writings. Yet Benjamin used them in his photographic conception of history, which had its testing ground in his often-ignored Berliner Kindheit um 1900. And Christa Wolf's narrator in Patterns of Childhood attempts to reclaim her childhood from the Nazis by reconstructing mental images of lost family photographs. Confronted with multiple and conflicting images of themselves, all four of these writers are torn between the knowledge that texts, photographs, and indeed selves are haunted by undecidability and the desire for the returned glance of a single self.

Keywords

82-94 --- 82:7 --- 77 --- Dagboek. Memoires. Autobiografie --- Literatuur en kunst --- Fotografie --- Autobiography. --- Photography --- Self-realization in literature. --- Philosophy. --- 82:7 Literatuur en kunst --- 82-94 Dagboek. Memoires. Autobiografie --- 77 Fotografie --- 77.01 --- CDL --- Autobiography --- Self-realization in literature --- Autobiographies --- Egodocuments --- Memoirs --- Biography as a literary form --- Philosophy --- History and criticism --- Technique --- Benjamin, Walter, --- Strindberg, August, --- Twain, Mark, --- Wolf, Christa. --- Volf, Krista --- Ihlenfeld, Christa Margarete --- Tvėn, Mark, --- Tuėĭn, Mark, --- Tuwayn, Mārk, --- Twayn, Mārk, --- Tʻu-wen, Ma-kʻo, --- Tven, M. --- Touen, Makū, --- Twain, Marek, --- Make Tuwen, --- Tuwen, Make, --- Make Teviin, --- Твен, Марк, --- Touain, Mark, --- טבןַ, מרק, --- טוויין, מארק, --- טוויין, מרק, --- טווין, מארק, --- טווין, מרק, --- טווען, מארק, --- טוין, מרק, --- טװען, מארק, --- טװײן, מארק, --- 馬克吐温, --- Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, --- Snodgrass, Quintus Curtius, --- Conte, Louis de, --- Strindberg, Johan August, --- Sṭrindberg, A., --- Sutorintoberuku, --- Strindbergs, Augusts, --- Sṭrindberg, O., --- Strindberg, Ogust, --- סטאינדבערג, אויגוסט, --- סטרינבערג, אויגוסט --- סטרינבערג, אויגוסט, --- סטרינבערג, אױגוסט --- סטרינגבערג, אווגוסט, --- סטרינדבערג, אווגוסט, --- סטרינדבערג, אויגוסט --- סטרינדבערג, אויגוסט, --- סטרינדבערג, אוידוסט --- סטרינדבערג, אױגוסט, --- סטרינדבערג, א. --- סטרינדברג, אבגוסט, --- סטרינדברג, אוגוסט --- סטרינדברג, אוגוסט, --- סטרינדברג, א. --- סטרנדנערג, אויגוסט --- Стриндберг, Огуст, --- Benjamin, W. --- Benjamin, Walter --- Tuvāyn, Mārk, --- تواين، مارک --- Tvāyn, Mārk, --- Strindberg, August --- Strindberg, Johan August --- Sṭrindberg, A. --- Sutorintoberuku --- Strindbergs, Augusts --- Sṭrindberg, O. --- Strindberg, Ogust --- Twain, Mark --- Tvėn, Mark --- Tuėĭn, Mark --- Tuwayn, Mārk --- Twayn, Mārk --- Tʻu-wen, Ma-kʻo --- Touen, Makū --- Twain, Marek --- Make Tuwen --- Tuwen, Make --- Make Teviin --- Твен, Марк --- Touain, Mark --- Tuvāyn, Mārk --- Tvāyn, Mārk --- Clemens, Samuel Langhorne --- Snodgrass, Quintus Curtius --- Conte, Louis de --- Holz, Detlef, --- Banyaming, --- Benʼyamin, Varutā, --- Peñcamin̲, Vālṭṭar, --- Binyamin, Ṿalṭer, --- בנימין, ולטר --- בנימין, ולטר, --- ולטר, בנימין, --- Penyamin, Palt'ŏ, --- 벤야민 발터, --- Wolf, Christa --- Views on photography. --- photos, photographs, photograph, photographer, pictures, illustrated, illustrations, autobiographical, true story, realistic, framing, identity, art, artwork, image, mirroring, writing, observation, being, camera, film, politics, political, 1800s, 1900s, history, historical, literature, literary, academic, scholarly, research, childhood, nazi, national, socialist.

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