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Creator:
Gibbons, Luke
Title(s):

Limits of the visible : representing the great hunger / Luke Gibbons.

Additional Title(s):

Representing the great hunger

Published/Created:
Hamden, CT : Quinnipiac University Press, [2014]
©2014
Physical Description:
39 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm.
Holdings:
Reference Library
DA950.7 .G53 2014 (LC) Oversize
Accessible in the Reference Library [Hours]
Note: Please contact the Reference Library to schedule an appointment [Email ycba.reference@yale.edu]
Full Orbis Record:
http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/13275339
Classification:
Books
Notes:
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.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-37).
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.
Subject Terms:
Art.
Famine (Ireland : 1845-1852)
Famines -- Ireland.
Famines in art.
Famines in art.
Famines.
History, 19th Century.
Human Migration -- history.
Hunger in art.
Hunger in art.
Ireland -- History -- 19th century.
Ireland -- History -- Famine, 1845-1852.
Ireland.
Ireland.
Social history -- history.
Starvation -- history.
Form/Genre:
History.
Contributors:
Ireland's Great Hunger Museum.
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  • Representing the great hunger
  • The dark side of the landscape
  • The unflinching eye
  • The politics of vision
  • Projecting the nation.