Photography and the Book: A Note on Ralph Gibson’s Ex Libris by Jan Baetens
Figure 1: Ralph Gibson, Ex Libris, pages 44-45 (courtesy Ralph Gibson) Figure 2 : Ralph Gibson, Ex Libris, pages 46-47 (courtesy Ralph Gibson) Figure 3 : Ralph Gibson, Ex Libris, pages 48-49 (courtesy Ralph Gibson) Figure 4 : Ralph Gibson, Ex Libris, pages 50-51 (courtesy Ralph Gibson)
Photography and literature : a particular case of intermediality If one takes a look at the field of literary studies, one may have the impression that the traditional field of comparative literature has no longer the presence and the impact it used to have. Despite the cultural and economic globalization – or perhaps because of that very phenomenon – there is less interest for the comparison of various national literatures and traditions. Often it is ”theory” that has taken the place of what comparative literature used to be, or cultural studies, yet to limit the picture to the sole field of writing and verbal language may also be a little misleading. One of the most striking aspects of contemporary literary scholarship is indeed its fascination with «intermediality studies» (as exemplified for instance by a journal such as the Montreal based Intermédialités/Intermedialities), and it is far from absurd to consider this new subdiscipline a new form of comparative literature, well appropriated to the visual and media turn that have become very important in literature as well since two or three decades. But what is at stake in intermediality studies? At first sight, the scope of the discipline is not very different from what had always been called «interart comparison». However, the differences with this traditional discipline are crucial. Contrary to interart comparison, which was mainly a way of comparing isolated works, authors, and techniques from two different fields, such as literature and painting or literature and music, intermediality studies has a much more radical starting point. It implies indeed that a medium can only be studied in its relationships