Shima Sahranavard (she/her), PhD Student

Joined the program in Spring 2023.

I am mostly interested in image and imagination studies. My research broadly focuses on interdisciplinary studies between literary forms and other representations of image, such as painting, engraving, cinema, etc. “Image” can be defined in different ways for different writers or artists; I am interested in the intersection of image and literature. Furthermore, I am doing a MIMS minor. I am also interested in French contemporary philosophy. 

For my master’s dissertation, I focused on a novel by Pascal Quignard, Terrasse à Rome (2000). In this unique novel, the writer gives a privileged place to the original image. I demonstrated the significance of image in this novel and how it reflects the philosophy of Quignard. I argued the reason why language being considered as a faculty which is neither sufficient to express itself nor to understand the depth of a lack in human beings, is replaced by image in the novel via the art of mezzotint.