Ambivalence and Photography: Resistance or Exchange in Edward Saids After the Last Sky
Summary :
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The dialectic of exchange and resistance between photograph and text
- The rhetoric of resistance and of exchange in 'States'
- Conclusion
Abstract
In his essay Picture Theory on the relationship between photograph and text, W.J.T. Mitchell refers to concepts he coins as the "rhetoric of resistance" and the "rhetoric of exchange and cooperation" (Mitchell, 41). The terms "rhetoric of resistance" and "rhetoric of exchange and cooperation" are perhaps best defined with Mitchell's example of Walker Evans and James Agee's photographic essay Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. In their essay, resistance signifies for Evans and Agee the "sabotaging of an effective surveillance and propaganda apparatus, one which creates easily manipulable images and narratives to support political agendas" (Mitchell, 41). Evans and Agee are able to sabotage this untruthful-and thus unethical-apparatus of exchange of (and cooperation with) political agendas by way of resisting conventional forms of image/text juxtapositions in forming their essays. Conventional forms might include adding photograph cutlines in an attempt to place the shot in time and history, or using angle techniques to embolden the subject. By resisting these conventional forms, photograph and text do not exchange meanings and cooperate with each other vis-à-vis or perpetuate political aims. Instead, Evans and Agee's photographic essay is a work in which the nature of the photographs is not a given; it demands objectivity from a viewer, a viewer who can draw his or her own conclusions from what is offered.
Latest in the category : Literature
3
We are what we repeat: Repetition and identity construction in Derrida and Butler
Term papers | 10/27/2009 | en | .doc | 4 pages
4
Analysis of - There eyes were watching god by Zora Neale Hurston
Book review | 10/21/2009 | en | .doc | 3 pages
Most downloaded in the last 30 days : Literature
From the same author : Literature
2
Power and Difference: A Derrida and Foucault Encounter
Term papers | 08/08/2007 | en | .doc | 10 pages
4
Towards New Grand Narratives in Postmodern Fiction
Presentation | 08/07/2007 | en | .doc | 10 pages
5
Some Narratological Moves and Their Effect in End of Alice
Term papers | 08/07/2007 | en | .doc | 8 pages
Change Currency
Our guarantee :
How it works?
Quality guaranteed
Refunds
Secure payment
Who are we ?
