The Indexicality of the Real and the Political

Eleni Coundouriotis • University of Connecticut at Storrs

March 25th @ 6pm • Daniel Family Commons

Indexicality refers to how (and if) the representation of the real matches up to that which it claims to represent. In realist literature, the real indexes history. In photography, it indexes the object that has been photographed, etc. These claims of indexicality have been highly contested and the concept set aside as inadequate to grapple with the visual technologies of today. In literature, where the alignment of the real with history endures, realism as the presumed aesthetic for the historical has come under fire. But what if our sense of the real is anticipatory rather than reflective of the past? What if we index the real in the present and see it incipiently as forming the new? The contemporary novel of migration offers instances of a visually informed realism that thinks into the future disrupting anticipated narrative arcs that seek to index key ideas such as migrant voyage, refugee camp, and the border.

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