Writing on Walls: Intermedial Qualities of the Wall in Timothy Findley’s "Famous Last Words"

Aurélie Zurbrügg

Abstract


This article considers the position of the wall in media and literary studies. It posits that the wall encompasses qualities that justify its examination as a medium. The widespread presence of the wall in fiction suggests this structure is an important, yet neglected actor in the transmission of material communication. When the wall functions as a medium, its endurance, visibility, and materiality actively influence the messages it channels. As demonstrated through a close reading of Timothy Findley’s Famous Last Words, the study of the wall represents a unique opportunity to engage in a novel approach to the study of media in fiction.


Keywords


medium; wall; fiction, intermediality; "Famous Last Words"

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abani, C. (2007). The Virgin of Flames. New York: Penguin.

Bolter, J. D., & Grusin, R. (1999). Remediation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Boyle, T. C. (1995). Tortilla Curtain. London: Bloomsbury.

Cummins, J. (2019). American Dirt. New York: Flatiron Books

Davis, A. Y. (1974). Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York: Random House.

De Saussure, F. (1986). Course in General Linguistics (R. Harris, Trans.). Chicago: Open Court Press.

Depledge, E. (2018). Shakespeare’s Rise to Cultural Prominence: Print, Politics and Alteration, 1642-1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Elleström, L. (2010). The Modalities of Media: A Model for Understanding Intermedial Relations. In L. Elleström (Ed.), Media Borders, Multimodality and Intermediality (pp. 11–48). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Findley, T. (2001). Famous Last Words. London: Faber and Faber.

Gilman, C. P. (1998). The Yellow Wallpaper. New York: Bedford Books.

Headley, M. D. (2018). The Mere Wife. New York: Farra, Strauss and Giroux.

Hogan, L. (1995). Solar Storms. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction.

Krtilova, K. (2012). Intermediality in Media Philosophy. In Travels in Intermedia[lity]: ReBlurring the Boundaries (pp. 37–45). Chicago: Dartmouth College Press.

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Melville, H. (1856). Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street. Piazza Tales. New York: Dix and Edwards. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/bartleby.pdf.

Morrison, T. (2008). A Mercy. New York: Vintage.

Rajewsky, I. O. (2005). Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediality. Intermédialités, 6, 43–64.

Rippl, G. (2015). Introduction. In G. Rippl (Ed.), Handbook of Intermediality: Literature – Image – Sound – Music (Vol. 1, pp. 1–31). Berlin: De Gruyter.

Schröter, J. (2011). Discourses and Models of Intermediality. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 13(3). DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.1790.

Smith, Z. (2000). White Teeth. New York: Vintage.

The Bible (King James Version) (1611). King James Bible Online. Retrieved February 23, 2022, from https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Daniel-Chapter-5/.

Vladislavić, I. (2006). Portrait with Keys: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2022.46.3.35-45
Date of publication: 2022-10-31 18:06:37
Date of submission: 2022-02-25 14:02:28


Statistics


Total abstract view - 733
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 248

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2022 Aurélie Zurbrügg

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.