Arresting Beauty, Framing Evidence: an Inquiry Into Photography and the Teaching of Writing
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University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 2009 Arresting beauty, framing evidence: An inquiry into photography and the teaching of writing Kuhio Walters University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Walters, Kuhio, "Arresting beauty, framing evidence: An inquiry into photography and the teaching of writing" (2009). Doctoral Dissertations. 492. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/492 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ARRESTING BEAUTY, FRAMING EVIDENCE: AN INQUIRY INTO PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE TEACHING OF WRITING BY KUHIO WALTERS Baccalaureate of Art Degree, California State University, Fresno, 1997 Master of Art Degree, California State University, Fresno, 1999 DISSERATATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In English May, 2009 UMI Number: 3363736 Copyright 2009 by Walters, Kuhio INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI® UMI Microform 3363736 Copyright 2009 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED c2009 Kuhio Walters This dissertation has been examined and approved. Dissertation Director, Thomas Newkirk, Professor of English Bruce Ballenger, Associate ( ssor of English, Boise State University Qasty"BSSSet Assistant Professor of English Lisa MacFarlane, Professor of English Paula Salvio, Professor of Education tAfrU Q%) Q_D09 Date IV DEDICATION For Sequoyah, who missed many days of playing catch so this work could be completed. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks to my committee for their time and thoughtfulness in responding to this writing. From day one, Tom helped me stay mindful of the pragmatic needs of writing teachers, Lisa pushed me to think more deeply about making photographs and arguments, Paula nurtured my explorations of theory, and Bruce, through example, inspired me to be more insightful and imaginative as a teacher. Cristy kindly came aboard late in the process, and somehow made time to provide prolific, engaged feedback. And I cannot thank enough the network of friends and family who supported me during this lengthy process, and who never questioned its value or necessity. Thanks to my father, ever the straight shooter, and my brother the comic. Thanks to Tammy and the Boys for their unwavering faith. Thanks to Beth and Sue, sources of endless chat and friendship. Thanks to Sequoyah for hilarity and good fun. Greatest thanks, however, are reserved for Kim, without whom this project would not have ended. Her love, wit, and managerial finesse helped all the trains run on time. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF FIGURES vii ABSTRACT ix CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 I. COMPOSED AND FRAMED: PHOTOGRAPHY WITHIN AND BEYOND VISUAL STUDIES 15 The First Revolution: Pleasure and the Photographic Age 17 The Visual Revolution in Literacy Studies 21 The Photograph Returns: Affect and the Puncturing of Semiotic Perspective 32 The Social Practice of Private Looking: A Photo Essay Project in Four Parts 44 Light 48 Framing and Composition 48 II. "VISIBLE THINGS" AND BEYOND: PHOTOGRAPHY, VOICE, AND THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE 54 Toward a Definition of Personal Narrative 57 Voice, Vision, and the Humility of Style 59 The Double Vision of Photography and Autobiography 67 Photography Visible, Obscured, and Invisible 72 WYSIWYG, or Photography Visible: What you see is what you get 74 Photography Obscured: What you see is not what you get 79 Photography Invisible: What you see isn 't there 82 Vll III. SEEKING WITH A "WILD EYE": PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE RESEARCH ESSAY 85 Aesthetics, Politics, and Research with a Purpose 86 The Surreal Eye as the Researcher's Tool 94 IV. DISTURBING PLEASURE: PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE IM/POSSIBLE ETHICS OF CATASTROPHE 101 The Exquisite Corpse 105 War Photography as Encrypted Pornography 109 Sontag's negative epiphany and the critique of pleasure 112 Surrealism, nostalgia, and "the amorous relation" 115 Disturbing Pleasure 121 EPILOGUE 132 BIBLIOGRAPHY 135 Vlll LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Sample Assignment #1: Making Pictures for Essay #1: Photography Scavenger Hunt 50 Figure 2. Sample Assignment #2: Making Narrative for Essay #1: Your Visual Discovery of the University, in Words 52 Figure 3. Sample Assignment #3: Picture Perfect: Photography and the (Perfect?) Family Narrative 73 Figure 4. Sample Assignment #4: Photographic Remembering and Catastrophic Events 127 Figure 5. Sample Assignment #5: The Impossible Task of the Photo Editor 130 Figure 6. Sample Assignment #6: The Art of the Crop 131 IX ABSTRACT ARRESTING BEAUTY, FRAMING EVIDENCE: AN INQUIRY INTO PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE TEACHING OF WRITING by Kuhio Walters University of New Hampshire, May, 2009 This dissertation examines the uses and conceptualizations of photography in college Composition. Composition has long been conflicted over the relation between form and content—and since the 1970s, between aesthetics and politics. Today, this disciplinary tension manifests in how the visual is brought into pedagogy: either it is approached aesthetically, as something to beautify a text, or politically, as a source of cultural critique. The field's uses of photography have been positioned within this aesthetics/politics binary, but to understand the medium as only one or the other is to miss its full practical and theoretical potential. Theoretically, photography is powerful and poignant because it is both a product of society and a work of art; both ideological artifact and piece of the natural world; both beautiful and deceptive. As an utterly ambiguous object of questionable knowledge, the photograph is an ideal tool for introducing students to the genuine challenges of interpretation. Practically, photographs are easily examined by groups of students, are convenient points of reflection for class discussion, and are pleasing to work into one's X written text. This pleasure is key: it makes the act of composing an affective, critical, artistic, and thoroughly rhetorical process. Each chapter ties these practical and theoretical qualities of the photograph into different areas of concern to writing teachers. Chapter I looks at the ways photography is usually situated by social pedagogies, arguing that personal and aesthetic uses of photography also help students develop critical thinking skills. Chapter II considers the poststructural critique of a "stable self in autobiography, arguing the photo-essay can help students maintain a strong narrative voice in spite of this de-stabilizing of self. Chapter III considers how photography helps students meld affective and intellectual aspects of subjective experience into research writing. Chapter IV considers the moral challenges posed by looking at disturbing photographs, arguing that asking students to work on such images aesthetically helps them confront the horrific events depicted, but in a way that is survivable. The chapters build in ethical complexity, but aesthetics and ethics are balanced throughout—which, this dissertation argues, is the essential power of photography. 1 INTRODUCTION Though this dissertation focuses on photography and its unsettled relation to composition, my thinking throughout is firmly rooted in arguments that are familiar to the teaching of writing. Photography is the main theoretical vehicle in each chapter, in other words, but the larger argument is this: when it comes to educating First Year college writers, personal pleasure is fundamental to the development of critical thinking. I extend this by claiming, further, that even political thinking demands a kind of aesthetic engagement. Another way to say this is that one's attention to form and style cannot be fully sifted out of one's views on a political problem, even if that problem demands immediate ethical action. This isn't to disregard the need for ethical action in society, but only to point out that political thought is never free of aesthetic considerations (especially visual pleasure). Each chapter extends this claim into various areas of concern for compositionists. In this sense, photography serves as a theoretical metaphor, allowing me to take a new look at old topics. Indeed, photography can powerfully demonstrate the relation between aesthetics and politics, for reasons this dissertation will explore at length. But it must be emphasized again that the aesthetics/politics relationship has always concerned teachers of college writing, with or without photography. Even if they do not