The paper discusses the use and different textual functions of images and photographs in some contemporary novels: The mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, by Umberto Eco; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer; Austerliz by W.G. Sebald; The Lost. A search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelshon. In each case different relations are established between visual and verbal textual components, from a purely illustrative function of linguistic narration, to the creation of a new ‘third system’, a multimodal system of expression composed of both linguistic and visual material. In particular, the use of images seems to play a special function in relation to memory and evocation of the past, both at an autobiographic level and at the level of cultural, collective histories.
P. Violi (2009). Images as Testimony: Use of Photographs in Literary Reconstruction of Cultural Memory. NOTTINGHAM : Critical, Cultural and Communications Press.
Images as Testimony: Use of Photographs in Literary Reconstruction of Cultural Memory
VIOLI, MARIA PATRIZIA
2009
Abstract
The paper discusses the use and different textual functions of images and photographs in some contemporary novels: The mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, by Umberto Eco; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer; Austerliz by W.G. Sebald; The Lost. A search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelshon. In each case different relations are established between visual and verbal textual components, from a purely illustrative function of linguistic narration, to the creation of a new ‘third system’, a multimodal system of expression composed of both linguistic and visual material. In particular, the use of images seems to play a special function in relation to memory and evocation of the past, both at an autobiographic level and at the level of cultural, collective histories.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
