Benjamin, Barthes and the Singularity of Photography

Benjamin, Barthes and the Singularity of Photography presents two of the most important intellectual figures of the twentieth century in a new comparative light. Pursuing hitherto unexplored aspects of Benjamin's and Barthes's engagement with photography, it provides new interpretations of familiar texts and analyzes material which has only recently become available. It argues that despite the different historical, philosophical and cultural contexts of their work, Benjamin and Barthes engage with similar issues and problems that photography uniquely poses, including the relationship between the photograph and its beholder as a confrontation between self and other, and the dynamic relation between time, subjectivity, memory and loss. Each writer emphasizes the singular event of the photograph's apprehension and its ethical and existential aspects rooted in the power and poignancy of photographic images. Mapping the complex relationship between photographic history and theory, cultural criticism and autobiography, this book will be of considerable interest not only to historians and theorists of photography but also to scholars working in literary and cultural studies.

This amply illustrated volume is a magisterial study., This meticulously researched and enlightening study will be essential reading for anyone seeking in-depth immersion in the theory, history, and affective content of photography in two of its key explorers ... The book makes a captivating case for thinking Benjamin and Barthes together ... A fascinating book., The book introduces valuable interdisciplinary analogies that only occasionally, if ever, have been applied to the study of the photography’s history and theorization, such as Derek Attridge’s concepts of 'singularity' and 'event,' Giorgio Agamben’s writings about 'demand,' and Marcel Proust’s theme of 'involuntary memory.', "Meticulously tracing the network of connections between Benjamin's and Barthes's visions of the encounter between photograph and viewer, this book performs an invaluable critical service. Kathrin Yacavone's discussion will be required reading for anyone seriously interested in photographic phenomenology or who has ever felt the singular impact of a photographic image." -- Michael Sheringham, FBA, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature, All Souls College, University of Oxford, UK, "This first book-length comparative study of Benjamin's and Barthes's work on photography addresses head-on the ethical phenomena involved in producing and reading photography." - Elizabeth Stewart, Associate Professor of English, Yeshiva University, New York and author of Catastrophe and Survival: Walter Benjamin and Psychoanalysis.

Kathrin Yacavone teaches in the Department of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK.