Self, identity and the ethics of portraiture in photography and writing

Abstract

This thesis is comprised of two parts, a creative work of a full-length novel and a critical exegesis examining three separate but thematically linked texts. Novel: Where the Light Falls: The creative work is a full-length contemporary novel written in the psychological realist style, dealing with a crisis of self. It is narrated in the third person free indirect style. The novel is deeply engaged with the formation of the self and identity, in particular the understanding of the self in relation to the other. Photographic portraiture is also considered at length as a means of representing others and of self-expression. Finally, the novel offers a sustained examination of grief as an emotion that impacts upon and shapes the self. Exegesis: The exegesis considers three ideas: the self, identity and the ethics of portraiture. The nature of the exegesis is to examine the philosophical ideas that arise in the creative work. This thesis argues that the self is an inescapable presence in both photography and writing and that the fraught ethical dimension of portraiture arises because of the difficulties in representing the continuum of self. The exegesis explores three separate texts in chapters related by theme. The first chapter considers the portrait photograph in Marguerite Duras's The Lover, as a metaphor for writing the self. Chapter two explores Susan Sontag's curiously emotional response the work of Diane Arbus and argues Sontag's reluctance to acknowledge the affective power of Arbus's photographic portraits undermines her critique of the photographs on ethical grounds. The final chapter argues that Herve' Guibert's Ghost Image demonstrates that a degree of subjectivity underpins every photographic act. The thesis relates photography and writing as a means of representing the self and concludes that the ethical concerns that arise in portraiture are common to both forms.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English