Research Catalog

Limits of the visible : representing the great hunger

Title
  1. Limits of the visible : representing the great hunger / Luke Gibbons.
Published by
  1. Hamden, CT : Quinnipiac University Press, [2014], ©2014.
Author
  1. Gibbons, Luke.

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Details

Additional authors
  1. Ireland's Great Hunger Museum.
Description
  1. 39 pages : color illustrations, facsimiles; 28 cm.
Summary
  1. The absence of photographs of the Irish Famine has been attributed to the shorcomings of a medium then in its infancy, but it may also be due to certain limitations in the visible itself. Susan Sontag argued that images can evoke sentimental responses but cannot address wider political questions of obligation and justice. In this essay, Luke Gibbons revisits representations of the Famine, particularly those in Ireland's Great Hunger Museum to argue that images can not only give visual pleasure but demand ethical interventions on the part of spectators. This fusing of sympathy and affective response with the right of redress is conveyed by a 'judicious obscurity,' a determination not to show all, which places an obligation on the spectator to complete what is beyond representation, or what is left to the imagination. --Page [4] of cover.
Series statement
  1. Ireland's Great Hunger Museum / Niamh O'Sullivan, Grace Brady
Uniform title
  1. Ireland's Great Hunger Museum / Niamh O'Sullivan, Grace Brady.
Alternative title
  1. Representing the great hunger
Subject
  1. Ireland
  2. Famines
  3. Art
  4. Starvation > history
  5. History, 19th Century
  6. Famines > Ireland
  7. Human Migration > history
  8. Hunger in art
  9. Famine (Ireland : 1845-1852)
  10. Ireland > History > Famine, 1845-1852
  11. Social Conditions > history
  12. Famines in art
  13. Ireland > History > 19th century
  14. History
  15. 1800 - 1899
Genre/Form
  1. History.
Contents
  1. Representing the great hunger -- The dark side of the landscape -- The unflinching eye -- The politics of vision -- Projecting the nation.
Owning institution
  1. Columbia University Libraries
Note
  1. The absence of photographs of the Irish Famine has been attributed to the shorcomings of a medium then in its infancy, but it may also be due to certain limitations in the visible itself. Susan Sontag argued that images can evoke sentimental responses but cannot address wider political questions of obligation and justice. In this essay, Luke Gibbons revisits representations of the Famine, particularly those in Ireland's Great Hunger Museum to argie that images can not only give visual pleasure but demand ethical interventions on the part of spectators. This fusing of sympathy and affective response with the right of redress is conveyed by a 'judicious obscurity,' a determination not to show all, whcih places an obligation on the spectator to complete what is beyond representation, or what is left to the imagination.--back cover.
Bibliography (note)
  1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-37).