UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

Kathrin Yacavone ist Literaturwissenschaftlerin und Photographiehistorikerin. Studium der Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaften und Kunstgeschichte in Mainz, Berlin, Edinburgh und Paris (École normale supérieure). Promotion an der University of Edinburgh zur Photographietehorie bei Walter Benjamin und Roland Barthes (2008). Dort auch Lehraufträge in der Kunstgeschichte und in French Studies. 2010 Postdoctoral Research Fellow am Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities der University of Edinburgh. Ab 2012 Assistant Professor in French Studies an der University of Nottingham. Seit 2019 Alexander von Humboldt Fellow an der Universität Konstanz und der Universität zu Köln.

• Theorie und Geschichte der Photographie
• Französische Literatur des 19. und 20. Jahrunderts
• Literatur- und Kulturtheorie
• Autorschaftsdiskurse
• Intermedialität und Mediengeschichte

Photography, Portraiture, and Intermedial Authorship in France 

A combined cultural history of analogue photography and theories of authorship in France, this research project explores multifaceted relations amongst renowned literary critics, authors, and theorists and their photographic portraits. Drawing on extensive archival research, it shows that far from being a mere visual appendage to key authors’ published works, photographs were a highly effective and influential means of authorial (self-) construction. Simultaneously, the photographic medium and specific images provided inspiration for these authors and also prompted substantial critical reflection upon writing and authorship. Rather than looking at photographic portraits of French writers in isolation, they are analyzed as part of wider literary, material, socio-cultural, and historical dynamics, with emphasis on their production, dissemination, and reception. Prominent debates concerning authorship are thus recast in a new photographic and intermedial light.

The book resulting from this research is under contract with Amsterdam University Press. For further information on the project, see: www.portraitofthewriter.com

Monographs

• Benjamin, Barthes and the Singularity of Photography, New York and London: Continuum, 2012, xiii + 247 pp., 17 b/w illus. (Paperback reprint with Bloomsbury, 2013; Turkish translation with Hayalperest publisher, 2015; Spanish translation with Alpha Decay publisher, 2017.

Edited Volumes

• Fotoalben im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. with Bernd Stiegler, guest-edited issue of Fotogeschichte. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik der Fotografie, vol. 41 (2021) (forthcoming).
• La Portraitomanie: Intermediality and the Portrait in 19th-century France, ed. with Érika Wicky, guest-edited issue of L’Esprit créateur, vol. 59:1, Johns Hopkins University Press (March 2019).
• Photography in Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures, special issue of Nottingham French Studies, vol. 53.2, Edinburgh University Press (July 2014).

Recent articles and book chapters

• ‘Intermediale Inszenierungsformen: Victor Hugo und das “Album Allix“’, Norm und Form: Fotoalben im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. by Bernd Stiegler and Kathrin Yacavone, special issue of Fotogeschichte. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik der Fotografie, vol. 41 (2021) (forthcoming).
• ‘The Photograph as Trace: Barthes, Benjamin, and an Archaeology of Photographic Theory’, Mosaic. An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, special issue on Camera Lucida, vol. 53 (2020) (forthcoming).
• ‘Picturing Barthes: The Photographic Construction of Authorship’, in Diana Knight (ed.), Interdisciplinary Barthes, Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2020, 97-116.
• ‘Image, Affect, and Autobiography: Roland Barthes’ Photographic Theory in Light of his Posthumous Publications’, in Mark Durden and Jane Tormey (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Photography Theory, London and New York: Routledge, 2020, 309-22.
• ‘George Sand and Nadar: Portraiture Between Lithography, Sculpture, and Photography’, L’Esprit créateur, vol. 59:1 (2019), 111-27.
• ‘The Spectacle of Authorship: Roland Barthes on French Television’, in Sarah Burnautzki, Frederik Kiparski, Raphaël Thierry and Maria Zannini (eds.), Dealing with Authorship. Authors between Texts, Editors and Public Discourses, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, 208-22.
• ‘“Une corde de plus à l’arc de tout le monde”: L’usage de la photographie chez Balzac et Hugo’, in David Martens, Jean-Pierre Montier and Anne Reverseau (eds.), L’Écrivain vu par la photographie. Formes, usages, enjeux, Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2017, 51-57 (illus. II-III).