Photography and hysteria : toward a poetics of the flash

Author

Baer, Ulrich

Document type

Article (journal)

Language

English

Source

Yale journal of criticism. 1994, Num. 1, Vol. 7, p. 41-77, 11 ill.

ISSN

0893-5378

Abstract (en)

Interprets a series of photographs of women diagnosed as hysterics, published by the French psychologist Jean-Martin Charcot in the last quarter of the 19th c. Comments on how these photographs were used as evidence for and documentation of the hysterical diagnosis, and pays particular attention to the dynamics of flash photography as the cause of some patients' symptoms. Concludes that "these photographs allegorize and thus make readable photography's specific link with traumatic memory and recollection. They also offer insight concerning the intersection of epistemology and technological invention that reveals the effects of the flash to consist in the irreconcilable encounter of two distinct temporalities".

Subject (en)

• General history of art -- 1800-1945 -- Pictorial arts -- Photography -- France
• Photography
• France
• 1800-1900
• Representation
• Women
• Hysteria
• Charcot, Jean Martin, 1825-1893

Subject (fr)

• Histoire générale de l'art -- 1800-1945 -- Peinture et arts graphiques -- Photographie -- France
• Photographie
• France
• 1800-1900
• Représentation
• Femmes
• Hystérie
• Charcot, Jean Martin, 1825-1893

Origin

DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)

Identifier19990701-00208723

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