Gossip on Main Street: Visualizing Oral Exchange in Mid-Twentieth-Century Small-Town Photography and Art

IF 0.2 3区 社会学 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY Journal of American Studies Pub Date : 2022-10-14 DOI:10.1017/S0021875822000202
William A. Carroll
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Abstract

This article explores the visual representation of gossip, rumourmongering, storytelling, and other analogues of oral exchange in mid twentieth-century small-town American visual narrative. I herein examine two key visual artists of the interwar period – photographer Ben Shahn and painter Norman Rockwell – and their place within the small-town narrative form, as well as Life magazine and its institutional small-town preoccupations. Considering Shahn's photographic work conducted as part of the Farm Security Administration to Rockwell's culturally dominant scenes of idyllic small-town life, I argue that both emphasize gossip's narratability despite their drastically different provenance. Opposing Shahn's scenes of Depression-era poverty with Rockwell's homogeneous vignettes of rural life, it will be concluded that gossip and oral exchange remained a vital narrative constituent for artists of the small town during the mid-twentieth century, and that its narrative significance cannot be overstated.
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大街上的八卦:20世纪中期小镇摄影与艺术中的口头交流
本文探讨了20世纪中期美国小镇视觉叙事中八卦、谣言散布、讲故事和其他类似的口头交流的视觉表现。我在这里考察了两次世界大战期间的两位重要视觉艺术家——摄影师本·沙恩和画家诺曼·洛克威尔——以及他们在小城镇叙事形式中的地位,以及《生活》杂志及其对小城镇的机构关注。考虑到Shahn的摄影作品是作为农场安全管理局的一部分进行的,而Rockwell的田园小镇生活的文化主导场景,我认为两者都强调了八卦的可叙事性,尽管它们的来源截然不同。与罗克韦尔同质的乡村生活小插曲相比,沙恩的大萧条时期的贫困场景,将得出这样的结论:八卦和口头交流仍然是20世纪中期小镇艺术家的重要叙事组成部分,其叙事意义不能被夸大。
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来源期刊
Journal of American Studies
Journal of American Studies HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
CiteScore
0.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
24
期刊介绍: Journal of American Studies seeks to critique and interrogate the notion of "America", pursuing this through international perspectives on the history, literature, politics and culture of the United States. The Journal publishes original peer-reviewed research and analysis by established and emerging scholars throughout the world, considering US history, politics, literature, institutions, economics, film, popular culture, geography, sociology and related subjects in domestic, continental, hemispheric, and global contexts. Its expanded book review section offers in-depth analysis of recent American Studies scholarship to promote further discussion and debate.
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