The rise of photography in the 19th and early 20th centuries participated in an extraordinary creative period in both visual and literary cultures, which continues in the 21st century. The force of new kinds of images and icons was immediate and transformative. Photography was used in a wide range of ways during its early years, from multimedia art forms (collage) to new surveillance methods (mug shots and passport photos) to advertising, journalism, family and personal mementos, among others. This was also the era of mass movements of people (immigration and migration).

This course will provide an introduction to the emergence of photography as a popular and artistic medium in the 20th century US, which we will put in dialogue with the literary and cultural movements of realism, modernism, postmodernism, and contemporary globalism. We’ll read key instances of photographic theory and ask how they can also illuminate trends in 20th and 21st century US novels. Some questions we’ll consider include: How did novels respond to the emergence of photography as a new visual medium? How might novels be read as competing and collaborating with photography? How might literary narrative have informed the trends and techniques of photography? How did (and do, today) photography and literary narrative respond to the social tensions around immigration and racialization? We will read works by a wide range of US novelists and photographers, likely including Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Norma Cantú, Teresa Cha, Aleksandar Hemon, Claudia Rankine, Ben Lerner, Ransom Riggs, Sesshu Foster, and Teju Cole.

Major Requirement: American Literature, Identity and Difference

Course Requirements:

Requirements include brief discussion posts, two essays, and two exams.