This talk addresses a global network of camera operators working on behalf of the Lumière Brothers film company between 1896-1903. Not only did these camera operators record films at sites from Algiers to Berlin to Tokyo, they also pictured the world anew, whether framing a street scene in Alexandria or offering a close up on a passing face in Jerusalem. The Lumière Brothers’ broader vision was to bring the world to the world, and they imagined a global network of films easily circulable beyond the constraints of language and literacy. Engaging the implications of cinematic versus literary capture, Allan’s talk explores the stakes of world literature in the age of the world picture.
Michael Allan is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon and editor of the journal Comparative Literature. He is the author of In the Shadow of World Literature: Sites of Reading in Colonial Egypt (Princeton 2016, Co-Winner of the MLA First Book Prize). His current research focuses on the travels of the Lumière Brothers film company across North Africa and the Middle East.
Date | Time
February 3, 2021 | 12:15 – 1:30 PM [PST]
RSVP by 11 AM on Wednesday, February 3rd; you will receive the Zoom link and password at 11:30 AM the day of the colloquium.
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