This inept object of desire Reflections on bovarysme and the photo-novel

A heterogeneous and popular byproduct of the press, the photo-novel struggled to find its place in relation to the “real” novel, to the great works. Drawing on the case of Hubert Serra and two examples of the photo-novel being transferred to less commonly used mediums or spaces, we examine how the cultural status of the photo-novel, its position with regard to the novel, and finally, its ability to make the reader question their own relationship to photographs, have been rethought.