Photography and fiction in life-writing

Thesis

This thesis examines life-writing with self-proclaimed fictional elements and inserted photographs. By probing the different ways in which text and images relate to their subjects, I demonstrate how photographs function as a kind of political evidence in works by Doris Lessing, Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, W. G. Sebald, Gertrude Stein, and Virginia Woolf. I argue that inserted photographs ensure, more than the referential claims of the text, that the assertions made with fiction have relevance for a reality external to the works. The photographs thus radicalise the works’ engagement with our shared reality, intensifying their political manifestation. Focusing on the scientific, commercial, and artistic aspects of the authenticating effect of photography, I pair authors to illustrate how photographs can help uncover the past (Nabokov and Lessing), market public personae (Stein and Mailer), and construct critical aesthetics (Woolf and Sebald). In examining twentieth- and twenty-first-century works by well-known authors I reveal that an imaginative use of images in life-writing has a tradition and a history. I also demonstrate that a collaborative relationship between text and images (rather than a competitive or undermining one) provides a valuable resource for imposing views on the world. My study provides insights into literature and photography, the ontology of photography, and the relationship between fiction and life-writing.

Authors: Fouirnaies, C

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-kedvm4gjd
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: biography; autobiography; photography; illustration; life-writing
• Subjects: Biography in literature; Autobiography in literature; Images, Photographic; Illustration of books; Photography