Multi-authored Yet Authorless Film Photonovels, an Ethical Paradox?
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Jan Baetens
Abstract
Ethos has become an important aspect of textual hermeneutics, but it tends to be applied to cases and examples that almost naturally beg for this kind of reading: first of all the works themselves, and not the host medium that makes them available and, second, works with unreliable narrators or works written by intrusive authors whose strong and controversial opinions purposively complicate the task of the ethically inspired reader. The twin genre of the photonovel and the film photonovel does not belong to these usual suspects, since at first sight it does not ethically challenge its readership. Moreover, it raises interesting questions as far as the relationships between work and host medium are concerned, more specifically at the level of the paratext, that is the place where “work” and “host medium” meet. The ambition of this essay is not to propose an ethical reading of the film photonovel as such, but to use the paratatextual organizations of this genre as an opportunity to raise new questions that may enlarge the field and the score of narrative hermeneutics.
Abstract
Ethos has become an important aspect of textual hermeneutics, but it tends to be applied to cases and examples that almost naturally beg for this kind of reading: first of all the works themselves, and not the host medium that makes them available and, second, works with unreliable narrators or works written by intrusive authors whose strong and controversial opinions purposively complicate the task of the ethically inspired reader. The twin genre of the photonovel and the film photonovel does not belong to these usual suspects, since at first sight it does not ethically challenge its readership. Moreover, it raises interesting questions as far as the relationships between work and host medium are concerned, more specifically at the level of the paratext, that is the place where “work” and “host medium” meet. The ambition of this essay is not to propose an ethical reading of the film photonovel as such, but to use the paratatextual organizations of this genre as an opportunity to raise new questions that may enlarge the field and the score of narrative hermeneutics.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- By Way of Introduction – Reflections on Narrative and Values, and the Value of Narratives 1
- The Ethical Potential and Risks of Narratives: Six Evaluative Continuums (and Sofi Oksanen’s Open Letter to Melania Trump) 23
- Narrative, Values, and the Place of the Human: Coordinating Anthropocentrism and Biocentrism 43
- The Circulating Professor: Narrative Configuration in Nabokov’s Pnin 61
- Multi-authored Yet Authorless Film Photonovels, an Ethical Paradox? 75
- Schrödinger’s Duck-Rabbit: Ambiguity and Meta-Framing across Media 93
- “Find me a motive!” Accusatory Rhetoric, Narrative and Values in Emile Zola’s ‘J’accuse’ 117
- The Right to Speak: The Cultural Archive and the Public Sphere in South Africa 133
- Dangerous Narratives: How Fake News and Narrative Journalism Shed Light on Journalism’s Epistemological Foundations and Self-understanding in the Twenty-first Century 155
- Beating Illness Into Shape: Applied Narratology and the Dangers of Storytelling 181
- Contributors 205
- Index 209
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- By Way of Introduction – Reflections on Narrative and Values, and the Value of Narratives 1
- The Ethical Potential and Risks of Narratives: Six Evaluative Continuums (and Sofi Oksanen’s Open Letter to Melania Trump) 23
- Narrative, Values, and the Place of the Human: Coordinating Anthropocentrism and Biocentrism 43
- The Circulating Professor: Narrative Configuration in Nabokov’s Pnin 61
- Multi-authored Yet Authorless Film Photonovels, an Ethical Paradox? 75
- Schrödinger’s Duck-Rabbit: Ambiguity and Meta-Framing across Media 93
- “Find me a motive!” Accusatory Rhetoric, Narrative and Values in Emile Zola’s ‘J’accuse’ 117
- The Right to Speak: The Cultural Archive and the Public Sphere in South Africa 133
- Dangerous Narratives: How Fake News and Narrative Journalism Shed Light on Journalism’s Epistemological Foundations and Self-understanding in the Twenty-first Century 155
- Beating Illness Into Shape: Applied Narratology and the Dangers of Storytelling 181
- Contributors 205
- Index 209
