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politics of representation in "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men"

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Date Issued:
1992
Summary:
Originally intended as light magazine journalism, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a book of photographs by Walker Evans and prose by James Agee, evolved into a complex work that exists on the boundaries of many genres, disciplines, and movements. The book is a documentary account of a month's stay with a family of Alabama tenant farmers in 1936. But it is simultaneously a challenge to claims of documentary realism, and to the assertions of knowledge and power that accompany those claims. Using modern theories of the documentary, as well as theories of postmodernism, this study traces the book's problematic relationship to "representation" as a textual and political strategy. I consider the interaction of words and images as one locus of ethical representation. The book's vision of just representation, I argue, can best be understood as an equal exchange involving author, reader, text, and the subjects of the representation.
Title: The politics of representation in "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men".
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Name(s): Spence, Steven A.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Coyle, William, Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1992
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 93 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Originally intended as light magazine journalism, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a book of photographs by Walker Evans and prose by James Agee, evolved into a complex work that exists on the boundaries of many genres, disciplines, and movements. The book is a documentary account of a month's stay with a family of Alabama tenant farmers in 1936. But it is simultaneously a challenge to claims of documentary realism, and to the assertions of knowledge and power that accompany those claims. Using modern theories of the documentary, as well as theories of postmodernism, this study traces the book's problematic relationship to "representation" as a textual and political strategy. I consider the interaction of words and images as one locus of ethical representation. The book's vision of just representation, I argue, can best be understood as an equal exchange involving author, reader, text, and the subjects of the representation.
Identifier: 14832 (digitool), FADT14832 (IID), fau:11620 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1992.
Subject(s): Agee, James,--1909-1955--Let us now praise famous men
Alabama--Rural conditions
Farm tenancy--Alabama
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14832
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.