Confounding Images : Photography and Portraiture in Antebellum American Fiction / Susan S. Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Susan S., Author.

Series:

Anniversary Collection

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864. House of the seven gables.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864. Marble faun.

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891. Pierre.

Melville, Herman.

American fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Art and literature--United States--History--19th century.

Art and literature.

Ekphrasis.

Literature and photography--United States--History--19th century.

Literature and photography.

Portrait photography--United States--History--19th century.

Portrait photography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (246 p.) : 27 illus.

Edition:

Reprint 2016

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2016]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Susan Williams recovers the literary and cultural significance of early photography in an important rereading of American fiction in the decades preceding the Civil War. The rise of photography occurred simultaneously with the rapid expansion of magazine publication in America, and Williams analyzes the particular role that periodicals such as Godey's Lady's Book, Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, and Atkinson's Casket played in defining how photography was received. At the center of the book are readings of a stunning array of fiction by forgotten and canonical writers alike, including Edgar Allan Poe, Louisa May Alcott, and Sarah Hale, as well as extended interpretations of Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables and The Marble Faun and Herman Melville's Pierre. In a concluding section, Williams offers a view of the fictional portrait in the later nineteenth century, when the proliferation of illustrated books once again transformed the relation between word and image in American culture.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Introduction: Confounding Images

1. The Portrait and the Social Construction of Ekphrasis

2. "The Inconstant Daguerreotype": The Narrative of Early Photography

3. The Haunted Portrait and Models of Authorship in Periodicals and Gift Books

4. Hawthorne, Daguerreotypy, and The House of the Seven Gables

5. Melville's Pierre and the Burden of Imitation

6. The Photography of Travel: Reading The Marble Faun

Afterword: Photography and Portraiture in the Later Nineteenth Century

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781512808872

1512808873

OCLC:

979581771