How do words make us “see?” Like images, words haunt us. But they also make us “see” the unseeable, not only the invisible or imaginary but what cannot be seen without great risk to a self, community, or nation. These questions become more complicated with the birth of photography, which transformed writing. This course considers the role of witnessing, remembering, and trauma—“afterimages”—in writing and photography. It asks what happens to writing after photography, which can stand beyond it, sometimes ethically, or stand alongside it, as a companion. Forms and genres include the essay, poetry, the novel, criticism, and journalism. Authors and artists include Teju Cole, Susan Sontag, Nan Goldin, Walker Evans, Roland Barthes, Claudia Rankine, Ida B. Wells, Virginia Woolf, Judith Butler, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Tina Campt, André Bazin, and Kaja Silverman.