Date of Award

2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Program

Comparative Literature

Abstract

This thesis examines formal aesthetic elements and political premises and implications in works by the Serbian-Canadian author David Albahari and French writer, photographer and filmmaker Chris Marker by establishing the visual metaphor of the camera as an instrument and theory of history, memory and subjectivity. I argue that the position of self-imposed exile and the travelling cinematography of the narrative point of view invite both camera obscura contemplation and a photographic/filmic mode of spectatorship. Albeit in different art forms, Marker’s experimental documentary film Sunless and Albahari’s novel Bait both function as meditations on personal and global experiences and history. Their aim is to filter traumatic memories, trying to (re)constitute a new subjectivity and a new historical horizon

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