rss search

Wisconsin Death Trip

line Widely embraced as a cult classic, though critiqued as dramatic historical research, Michael Lesy’s 1973 book Wisconsin Death Trip raises many questions about the relationship between images and history, while pushing these very boundaries with an alternative presentation."
A paper written for a masters class conducted by François Brunet, at Paris 7

 

Wisconsin Death Trip: A Critical Analysis

                 -“As a historian, Mr. Lesy is a dramatist.” – Greil Marcus

Widely embraced as a cult classic, though critiqued as dramatic historical research, Michael Lesy’s 1973 book Wisconsin Death Trip raises many questions about the relationship between images and history, while pushing these very boundaries with an alternative presentation. In the following essay, I propose analyzing Lesy’s groundbreaking book, which opens a rich discussion of image theory and art history, with an emphasis on photography.

 

Bibliography
Ball, Duane E. Review Untitled. The Journal of Economic History. Vol. 34, No. 2 (Jun. 1974),
pp. 509-510. JSTOR:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/2117001.
Danbom, David. “Review: Untitled.” Agricultural History. Vol. 48, No. 4. (Oct., 1974), pp. 603-
604. JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741404.
Gutman, Judith Mara. “Reading Pictures.” Reviews in American History. Vol. 1, No. 4 (Dec.
1973), pp. 488-492. The Johns Hopkins University Press. JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2701710.
Lesy, Michael. Wisconsin Death Trip. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1973.
Levine, Robert M. “Semiotics for the Historian: Photographers as Cultural Messengers.”
Reviews in American History, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Sep. 1985), pp. 380-385. JSTOR:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2702093.

Marcus, Greil. “A Record of Despair Born of a Single Image.” The New York Times Sunday, Nov. 28, 1999.
Mitchell, W.J.T. What do pictures want? The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago University Press, Chicago, 2005.
Nemerov, Alexander. “What is Research in the Visual Arts? Obsession, Archive Encounter.” Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 2008.
Lecture “Diane Arbus et Howard Nemerov : Une resemblance,” INHA, November 21, 2011.
Normand, Tom. Scottish Photography: A History. Luath Press Limited, Edinborough. 2007.
Peters, Marsha and Bernard Mergen. ““Doing the Rest”: The Uses of Photographs in American Studies.” American Quarterly. Vol. 29, No. 3, 1977. pp. 280-303. JSTOR
Raphael, Timothy. Oxford Magazine – Blog. “ Memento Mori”

http://www.orgs.muohio.edu/oxmag/2006/essays/raphael_memento.html

Sontag, Susan. On Photography. Picador, New York, 1973.
“Wisconsin Death Trip” Official website of the 1999 film: http://www.wisconsindeathtrip.com/reviews.html
“Wisconsin Death Trip.” YOUTUBE video, posted May 22, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voKdxD07PgE