In Picturing Identity (North Carolina, 2018), Hertha Sweet Wong (English) explores the intersection of writing and visual art in the autobiographical work of American writers and artists who employ a mix of written and visual forms of self-narration. Examining the work of such writers-artists as Art Spiegelman, Faith Ringgold, and Leslie Marmon Silko, Wong argues that, in grappling with the breakdown of stable definitions of identity and unmediated representation, her subjects experiment with hybrid autobiography in an effort to break free of inherited visual-verbal regimes and revise painful histories. She shows how their works envision new possibilities of selfhood and fresh modes of self-narration in word and image.

Wong is joined by Hans Sluga (Philosophy). After a brief discussion of the book, they open the floor for discussion.