Rethinking Propriety in the Age of Instantaneous Photography
E. W. Hornung's Camera Fiend
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12411536 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan Shelangoskie (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 721-744 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Victorian Literature and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1060-1503 • E-ISSN: 1470-1553 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1060150319000196 |
| OpenAlex | W3109671285 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
E. W. Hornung's novel The Camera Fiend (1911) imagines a frighteningly extreme vision of photography. This text leverages an existing discourse about the camera fiend —an amateur photographer who intrudes on strangers to capture snapshots of vulnerable moments. I argue that an examination of Hornung's version of the camera fiend, including its conflation with the representation of the scientist, illuminates the logic of threatening liminality and monstrous synthesis in the relationship between photography and existing social conventions. The text also proposes a solution to these cultural fears by repairing social disruptions, but it does so at a cost that is untenable
Aesthetics · Amateur · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Conflation · Epistemology · Indexicality · Liminality · Literature · Photography · Political science · Representation (politics · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Philosophy · Photography and Visual Culture
| Highly cited | No |
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