Fiction in the Age of Digital Photography: Fragmented Bodies, Distorted Time and Lost Control in Recent Irish Women’s Novels

Almost a century and a half after François Arago presented Daguerre’s invention to the Académie des Sciences, Nancy Armstrong devoted Fiction in the Age of Photography to the impact this invention had on literary realism in the nineteenth century. A little more than half a century after the first di...

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Main Author: Helen Penet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Asociación Española de Estudios Irlandeses 2025-03-01
Series:Estudios Irlandeses
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Online Access:https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/HelenPenet_DEF.pdf
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author Helen Penet
author_facet Helen Penet
author_sort Helen Penet
collection DOAJ
description Almost a century and a half after François Arago presented Daguerre’s invention to the Académie des Sciences, Nancy Armstrong devoted Fiction in the Age of Photography to the impact this invention had on literary realism in the nineteenth century. A little more than half a century after the first digital photograph, Julia Breitbach’s Analog Fictions for the Digital Age: Literary Realism and Photographic Discourses in Novels after 2000 questioned whether literature written in the digital age has genuinely come to terms with the revolution digital technologies have wrought on the medium of photography. This paper reflects on two recent novels by Irish millennial authors to see if this finding still holds. Referring to some of the fundamental differences between analogue and digital photography – fragmentation, temporality and authoriality – this paper suggests that in Louise O’Neill’s Asking for It (2015) and Sally Rooney’s Normal People (2018), digital photography is not only foregrounded thematically, but also has an impact on the writing itself.
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spelling doaj-art-da8667d5de6443ae88e38704fef6a7f82025-08-20T02:59:22ZengAsociación Española de Estudios IrlandesesEstudios Irlandeses1699-311X2025-03-012020526313220Fiction in the Age of Digital Photography: Fragmented Bodies, Distorted Time and Lost Control in Recent Irish Women’s NovelsHelen Penet0 University of Lille, France Almost a century and a half after François Arago presented Daguerre’s invention to the Académie des Sciences, Nancy Armstrong devoted Fiction in the Age of Photography to the impact this invention had on literary realism in the nineteenth century. A little more than half a century after the first digital photograph, Julia Breitbach’s Analog Fictions for the Digital Age: Literary Realism and Photographic Discourses in Novels after 2000 questioned whether literature written in the digital age has genuinely come to terms with the revolution digital technologies have wrought on the medium of photography. This paper reflects on two recent novels by Irish millennial authors to see if this finding still holds. Referring to some of the fundamental differences between analogue and digital photography – fragmentation, temporality and authoriality – this paper suggests that in Louise O’Neill’s Asking for It (2015) and Sally Rooney’s Normal People (2018), digital photography is not only foregrounded thematically, but also has an impact on the writing itself.https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/HelenPenet_DEF.pdflouise o’neillsally rooneymillennialphotographydigitalonline
spellingShingle Helen Penet
Fiction in the Age of Digital Photography: Fragmented Bodies, Distorted Time and Lost Control in Recent Irish Women’s Novels
Estudios Irlandeses
louise o’neill
sally rooney
millennial
photography
digital
online
title Fiction in the Age of Digital Photography: Fragmented Bodies, Distorted Time and Lost Control in Recent Irish Women’s Novels
title_full Fiction in the Age of Digital Photography: Fragmented Bodies, Distorted Time and Lost Control in Recent Irish Women’s Novels
title_fullStr Fiction in the Age of Digital Photography: Fragmented Bodies, Distorted Time and Lost Control in Recent Irish Women’s Novels
title_full_unstemmed Fiction in the Age of Digital Photography: Fragmented Bodies, Distorted Time and Lost Control in Recent Irish Women’s Novels
title_short Fiction in the Age of Digital Photography: Fragmented Bodies, Distorted Time and Lost Control in Recent Irish Women’s Novels
title_sort fiction in the age of digital photography fragmented bodies distorted time and lost control in recent irish women s novels
topic louise o’neill
sally rooney
millennial
photography
digital
online
url https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/HelenPenet_DEF.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT helenpenet fictionintheageofdigitalphotographyfragmentedbodiesdistortedtimeandlostcontrolinrecentirishwomensnovels