What used to lie outside the frame: Boundaries of photography, subjectivity and fiction in three novels by J.M. Coetzee

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Abstract

SummaryThe concept of frame and its inherent tensions, as addressed by contemporary thinking, is the theoretical focus of this article, which examines representations of photography in three of J.M. Coetzees novels (Dusklands ([1974]1983), Age of Iron (1990) and Slow Man (2005)). Photography is treated as a site where Coetzee explores the issues that preoccupy him throughout his work: subjectivity, its boundaries and the possibility of intersubjectivity in relation to the very act of storytelling. The article offers a metaphorical reading of such elements of photography as the blow-up, the negative and digital photography in order to reflect upon Coetzees engagement with the possibility of openness to transformation, otherness and futurity implied by both the photographic frame and intersubjectivity in life as well as in fiction.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)58-79
Number of pages22
JournalJournal of Literary Studies
Volume29
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2013

Bibliographical note

Published online: 18 Nov 2013

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