Photobiography: Photographic Self-writing in Proust, Guibert, Ernaux, Mace (Legenda Main)

"Why do photographs interest writers, especially autobiographical writers? Ever since their invention, photographs have featured - as metaphors, as absent inspirations, and latterly as actual objects - in written texts. In autobiographical texts, their presence has raised particularly acute questions about the rivalry between these two media, their relationship to the 'real', and the nature of the constructed self. In this timely study, based on the most recent developments in the fields of photography theory, self-writing and photo-biography, Akane Kawakami offers an intriguing narrative which runs from texts containing metaphorical photographs through ekphrastic works to phototexts. Her choice of Marcel Proust, Herve Guibert, Annie Ernaux and Gerard Mace provides unusual readings of works seldom considered in this context, and teases out surprising similarities between unexpected conjunctions. Akane Kawakami is a Senior Lecturer in French and francophone literature at Birkbeck University of London." Why do photographs interest writers, especially autobiographical writers? Ever since their invention, photographs have featured as metaphors, as absent inspirations, and latterly as actual objects in written texts. In autobiographical texts, their presence has raised particularly acute questions about the rivalry between these two media, their relationship to the real, and the nature of the constructed self. In this timely study, based on the most recent developments in the fields of photography theory, self-writing and photo-biography, Akane Kawakami offers an intriguing narrative which runs from texts containing metaphorical photographs through ekphrastic works to phototexts. Her choice of Marcel Proust, Hervé Guibert, Annie Ernaux and Gérard Macé provides unusual readings of works seldom considered in this context, and teases out surprising similarities between unexpected conjunctions This book offers an intriguing account of photobiographic works ranging from texts containing metaphorical photographs through ekphrastic narratives to photo-texts. It is dedicated to the writers who embody an attitude towards the self through the photographic: Proust, Guibert, Ernaux, and Mace.