L’ambivalence de la photographie dans les romans de Pascal Quignard
The Ambivalence of Photography in Pascal Quignard’s Novels

Summary/Abstract: In the novels of Pascal Quignard – The Württemberg Salon and Villa Amalia – photography is ambivalent. It depends on the point of view of the viewer, on its relationship to others and on the story of personal life, but also on the type of image taken: portrait or snapshot. If there is no relationship between the viewer and the immortalized image, then the photo produces pure aesthetic pleasure and ranks on the side of the visible. On the other hand, the clichés which are related to the life of the one who contemplates them serve to fix in memory some aspects of the past or to recall others. For the characters of Quignard, the photo is a storage-memory or a support-memory. In the remembrance’s process, the photo crosses the threshold of the visible, by being placed on the side of the readable one.

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