Description
Book SynopsisMarcel Proust offered the twentieth century a new psychology of memory and seeing. His novel In Search of Lost Time was written in the modern age of photography and art history. In Looking Back One Learns to See: Marcel Proust and Photography brings to light Proust’s photographic resources and his visual imagination. This scrupulously researched book features over 100 illustrations. Distinguished cultural historian Mary Bergstein presents various kinds of photography and photographic systems with regard to the literature of Marcel Proust, including daguerreotypes, stereoscopic cards, cartes-de-visite, postcards, book illustrations, portraiture, medical photography, spirit photography, architectural photography, and Orientalism. Photographs associated with fin-de-siècle studies of Botticelli, Leonardo, and Vermeer, are considered in terms of Proust’s tastes and the historiography of art.
Trade Review"Aus dem facettenreichen Buch spricht die vielfältige und teilweise widersprüchliche visuelle Kultur des 19. Jahrhunderts: Prousts Recherche bildet nur den Schnitt- und Symmetriepunkt der vielen Figuren, die sich in diesem Kaleidoskop andeuten, kurz aufleuchten und dann zu einer neuen Gestalt übergehen." - Mattei Chiaia, Zeitschrift für Französische Sprache und Literatur, 126, 2016/1–2, 136–139. "tje groundbreaking nature of Bergstein’s foray into [the] historicizing triad of French intellectualism, photography and Jewishness [...] a significant contribution to Jewish studies and visual culture." - Maya Balakirsky Katz, Images, 2017.
Table of ContentsPreface, Acknowledgements, and Notes on the Text Introduction: “Pleasure… is like photography” Chapter 1: Photography and Memory Chapter 2: Photography and the Cultural Archive Chapter 3: The Enigma of Character Illustrations chapters 1-3 Chapter 4: Long Ago and Far Away: Jews, Orientals, and Ghosts Chapter 5: Odette “En Abyme” Chapter 6: Botticelli/Vermeer/Leonardo Coda: “In Looking Back One Learns to See” Illustrations chapters 4-6 Bibliography Index
