A Planetary Lens

The Photo-Poetics of Western Women's Writing

Audrey Goodman

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781496228383
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism for Women Authors
• Index: Literature

Thomas J. Lyon Book Award from the Western Literature Association A Planetary Lens delves into the history of the photo-book, the materiality of the photographic image on the page, and the cultural significance of landscape to reassess the value of print, to locate the sites where stories resonate, and to listen to western women's voices. From foundational California photographers Anne Brigman and Alma Lavenson to contemporary Native poets and writers Leslie Marmon Silko and Joy Harjo, women artists have used photographs to generate stories and to map routes across time and place. A Planetary Lens illuminates the richness and theoretical sophistication of such composite texts. Looking beyond the ideologies of wilderness, migration, and progress that have shaped settler and popular conceptions of the region, A Planetary Lens shows how many artists gather and assemble images and texts to reimagine landscape, identity, and history in the U.S. West. Based on extensive research into the production, publication, and circulation of women's photo-texts, A Planetary Lens offers a fresh perspective on the entangled and gendered histories of western American photography and literature and new models for envisioning regional relations.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Photographers and Storytellers in the U.S. West
• 2. Western Women’s Camera Work
• 3. Joan Didion’s White Albums
• 4. Visual Passageways
• 5. Circling Out from Laguna
• 6. Apertures into the Next World
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About Audrey Goodman
• Series List