Readings:

Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida; Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes; Vladamir Nabokov, Speak, Memory

Course Description:

This course will explore the various relationships (both harmonious and troubled) between photography and memory. More specifically, we’ll look at the ways in which photography has shaped various writerly relationships to the past, both in autobiography and in fiction. Authors will include Baudelaire, Barthes, Benjamin, Proust, Nabokov, and Sontag. Films and photographs by Marker, Frampton, Nadar, Cartier-Bresson, and Stieglitz.

This course serves as an introduction to literary analysis and as a guide to the composition of well-argued essays. This will be accomplished by class discussion, by breaking down essay-writing into manageable components, and by extensive rewriting. French R1A fulfills the first half of the Reading and Composition Requirement in the College of Letters and Science. All readings and lectures are in ENGLISH.

Additional information:

French R1A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition Requirement. Classes are conducted in ENGLISH.

Section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes