Benjamin, Barthes and the Singularity of Photography presents two of the most important intellectual figures of the twentieth century in a new comparative light. Pursuing hitherto unexplored aspects of Benjamin's and Barthes's engagement with photography, it provides new interpretations of familiar texts and analyzes material which has only recently become available. It argues that despite the different historical, philosophical and cultural contexts of their work, Benjamin and Barthes engage with similar issues and problems that photography uniquely poses, including the relationship between the photograph and its beholder as a confrontation between self and other, and the dynamic relation between time, subjectivity, memory and loss. Each writer emphasizes the singular event of the photograph's apprehension and its ethical and existential aspects rooted in the power and poignancy of photographic images. Mapping the complex relationship between photographic history and theory, cultural criticism and autobiography, this book will be of considerable interest not only to historians and theorists of photography but also to scholars working in literary and cultural studies.
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from her country home in Nohant on May 7, 1852, discussing the preparation of the complete, illustrated edition of her works. She suggests including an engraved portrait of herself, recounting that "[Alexandre] Manceau a fait de moi un petit portrait délicieux, ressemblant et pourtant joli," while pondering its possible future use: "[…] je vous demande, moi, à l'insu de Manceau ce que vous comptez en faire. […] Cela nous serait bon pour nos éditions, pour mes mémoires, et j'en voudrais moi une cinquant[ain]e d'exemplaires pour mes amis et connaissances." 1 Here the portrait serves both a public function, putting a face to a famous author's workthe two literally bound and received by her audience together in book formand a private one, as an intimate token of the sitter. Over a decade later, in February 1863, Sand replies to a request by Gustave Flaubert to send him a portrait of her with the following lines: "Mes portraits sont rares, bien qu'on en vende de toutes sortes qui ne sont pas faits d'après moi. Je n'ai ici que de mauvaises épreuves. Quand j'irai à Paris je choisirai moi-même et je vous enverrai ce qu'il y aura de présentable" (Sand vol. 17, 448).Apart from her concern about how presentable her portraits are, the writer laments the lack of control over their dissemination, which circulate apparently without her consent. In an attempt to actively regain control of her image and its use, Sand sat in front of the camera lens again from 1864 and on December 20, 1868 personally places an order at a photographer's studio for a large number of carte-de-visite prints to be made: "Envoie-moi
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