In search of meaning in a world of images
This thesis offers a comparative analysis of the interactions between literature and photography in the works of three twentieth-century authors: Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans (1921-1995), American writer and photographer Wright Morris (1910-1998), and French writer Michel Tournier (1924-2016). Despite the authors’ clear awareness of photography’s limitations—points of enduring debate since the medium’s invention in the nineteenth century that continue to evolve—they nonetheless accorded photography an integral place in their lives and work. This apparent contradiction is explored through three distinct yet interconnected themes that emerge in the authors’ work—the violence of the photographic act, how photography may redefine the act of seeing, and “photographic insufficiency” or issues related to photographic representation. By examining a corpus of literary works in which photography serves as a central motif, alongside “photo-text” works that explicitly juxtapose photos and text, this study employs a range of methodological approaches—combining textual, visual, and photo-text analysis—to investigate how photography shapes the authors’ artistic practices and creative output. The findings indicate that photography assumes an ambivalent role in their works, both in its representational function and in its use. Accordingly, this study investigates how the photographic tensions at play position Hermans, Morris, and Tournier as late Modernist authors.
Key words: 20th century, literature, photography, photo-text, Willem Frederik Hermans, Wright Morris, Michel Tournier