An Eye for an Eye: Brian Evenson’s Merciless Art of Exposure
This paper looks into the way Brian Evenson’s “colorless writing” means to show violence in a way that leaves the reader unsheltered from it. Aiming at transparency or blankness, Evenson’s impersonal writing, though controlled and measured, introduces minimal distance between the reader and the acts...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2014-01-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/3484 |
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| author | Jean-Yves Pellegrin |
| author_facet | Jean-Yves Pellegrin |
| author_sort | Jean-Yves Pellegrin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper looks into the way Brian Evenson’s “colorless writing” means to show violence in a way that leaves the reader unsheltered from it. Aiming at transparency or blankness, Evenson’s impersonal writing, though controlled and measured, introduces minimal distance between the reader and the acts of violence it depicts, as if trying to disappear behind them. Evenson’s prose thus makes a bid for the evidential power of photography and, by the same token, attempts to turn the reader’s own eye into a camera eye. The process, however, results in a form of overexposure that turns transparency into opacity and inflicts irremediable blindness on the reader – an act of violence which is ultimately aimed at language itself. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b1997f01918a4283b9879e9b1314d8ec |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sillages Critiques |
| spelling | doaj-art-b1997f01918a4283b9879e9b1314d8ec2025-01-30T13:47:32ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022014-01-011710.4000/sillagescritiques.3484An Eye for an Eye: Brian Evenson’s Merciless Art of ExposureJean-Yves PellegrinThis paper looks into the way Brian Evenson’s “colorless writing” means to show violence in a way that leaves the reader unsheltered from it. Aiming at transparency or blankness, Evenson’s impersonal writing, though controlled and measured, introduces minimal distance between the reader and the acts of violence it depicts, as if trying to disappear behind them. Evenson’s prose thus makes a bid for the evidential power of photography and, by the same token, attempts to turn the reader’s own eye into a camera eye. The process, however, results in a form of overexposure that turns transparency into opacity and inflicts irremediable blindness on the reader – an act of violence which is ultimately aimed at language itself.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/3484transparencyoverexposureblanknessBrian Evensonexposureeye |
| spellingShingle | Jean-Yves Pellegrin An Eye for an Eye: Brian Evenson’s Merciless Art of Exposure Sillages Critiques transparency overexposure blankness Brian Evenson exposure eye |
| title | An Eye for an Eye: Brian Evenson’s Merciless Art of Exposure |
| title_full | An Eye for an Eye: Brian Evenson’s Merciless Art of Exposure |
| title_fullStr | An Eye for an Eye: Brian Evenson’s Merciless Art of Exposure |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Eye for an Eye: Brian Evenson’s Merciless Art of Exposure |
| title_short | An Eye for an Eye: Brian Evenson’s Merciless Art of Exposure |
| title_sort | eye for an eye brian evenson s merciless art of exposure |
| topic | transparency overexposure blankness Brian Evenson exposure eye |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/3484 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jeanyvespellegrin aneyeforaneyebrianevensonsmercilessartofexposure AT jeanyvespellegrin eyeforaneyebrianevensonsmercilessartofexposure |