DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/32KF-H342
Defense Date
2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. Jennifer Rhee
Second Advisor
Dr. Marcel Cornis-Pope
Third Advisor
Dr. Oliver Speck
Abstract
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw the development of technologies for externalizing human memory beyond writing, painting, and sculpting. These modes of visual representation, namely photography and cinema carried with them a purported objective representation of reality, which has been used to create classifications, divide people groups, and construct grand historical narratives used to marginalize those that do not fit within the hegemonic center. Looking to the works of writer W.G. Sebald, and filmmaker Chris Marker, we see a complication of the divide between visual and verbal texts, as each artist deconstructs their own medium’s conventions. Using theories of ekphrasis to draw connections between verbal and visual representation, we see how Sebald and Marker explore notions of memory, identity, and history as they struggle with the impossibility of representing the great traumas of the twentieth century.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-7-2015
Included in
Other English Language and Literature Commons, Photography Commons, Visual Studies Commons