Date of Award
Spring 6-2010
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Communication
First Advisor
Dr. Paul Booth
Second Advisor
Dr. Dustin Goltz
Abstract
A palimpsest is a new inscription on old materials, a form of media offering a hybrid yet hierarchical sense of time. Turning frequently to the writings of Alain Badiou, Roland Barthes, and Walter Benjamin, I examine two zines published in the wake of the death of a Chicago street artist and the confessional postcards of Frank Warren’s PostSecret mail art project to understand the formal traits and claims to truth photographs exhibit when they are transformed into palimpsests. The present intrudes on the past in these media, incompletely erasing or overwriting history to show the gaps in context and what slips from photographic memory.
Recommended Citation
Comer, Joshua L., "Palimpsests: Salvage, Sacrifice, and the Subject of Truth in Photographs" (2010). College of Communication Master of Arts Theses. 8.
https://via.library.depaul.edu/cmnt/8