Introduction
This is a one-year full-time course. Students take two core modules valued at 10 ECTS each. They select four optional modules at 10 ECTS each. These taught elements all take place in the Michaelmas and Hilary teaching terms. Towards the end of the academic year students write a dissertation valued at 30 ECTS. Core modules 1 and 2, which together form an Introduction to Textual and Visual Studies, are described on this page:
Core modules:
ECTS allocation: 2 x 10 credits (22 contact hours per module; student work load 240 hours per module)
Module Coordinator: to be confirmed
Teaching Staff: Justin Doherty, Robin Fuller (Semester 1); David Scott, Mads Haahr, Radosław Przedpełski (Semester 2)
This core component overall explores the complex relationship between textual and visual forms of apprehension and expression in the modern world and their impact on European culture post-1900. Topics looked at include graphic arts (poster, postage stamp, typography), cinema and contemporary digital-based media. Various theoretical approaches will be explored in relation to the word/image problematic as manifested in a number of European cultural traditions. Accompanying optional modules (two per semester) will focus on specific media (cinema, digital media) or themes (avant-gardes, postmodernism, semiotics).
Aims:
The aim of both core modules will be to bring students to a high level of theoretical and practical awareness of the text-image relation in cultural expression, to equip them to analyse and evaluate the various forms text/image interaction takes, and to provide them with a training that will enrich their practice in other areas of study or professional engagement.
Working Methods:
The two modules will consist of weekly two-hour seminars, each to include a lecture component of not more than one hour. Each week students will be required to have completed a reading assignment (set text and any further critical/theoretical background reading set in advance). All students will also be required to present at least one seminar paper per module.
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will have acquired a broad awareness of the range and complexity of text-image interaction in modern cultural expression in Europe - in cinema, photography and digital media as well as in the graphic arts.
- They will have been brought to a high level of theoretical and practical awareness of the text-image relation in cultural expression.
- They will have been equipped to analyse and evaluate the various forms text/image interaction takes, and provided with a training that will enrich their practice in other areas of study or professional engagement.
Syllabus
Michaelmas Term: Core Module 1
Week 1 General Introduction to core 1 (RF/JD)
Week 2 Word & Image in cinema 1: Eisenstein (Justin Doherty)
Week 3 Word/Image in cinema 2: Vertov (Justin Doherty)
Week 4 Word/Image in cinema 3: Tarkovsky (Justin Doherty)
Week 5 Word/Image in cinema 4: Cinema in the digital age (JD)
Week 6 Typography & Functionalism 1 (Robin Fuller)
Week 7 STUDY WEEK
Week 8 Typography & Functionalism 2 (Robin Fuller)
Week 9 Typography & Functionalism 3 (Robin Fuller)
Week 10 Functionalism and Alphabet Design (Robin Fuller)
Week 11 Student presentations/essay preparation (RF/JD)
Week 12 Student presentations/essay preparation (RF/JD)
Hilary Term: Core module 2
Week 1 Word/Image relations 1 Word/image theory/practice (David Scott)
Week 2 Word/Image relations 2 Rhetoric of Text/Image (DS)
Week 3 Word/Image relations 3 Word/Image and Speed (DS)
Week 4 Word/Image relations 4 Posters & postage stamps (DS)
Week 5 Word/Image in digital media 1 (Mads Haahr)
Week 6 Word/Image in digital media 2 (Mads Haahr)
Week 7 STUDY WEEK
Week 8 The Photographic Image as Material Affect (Radosław Przedpełski)
Week 9 The Cine-Image as Process and Change (RP)
Week 10 Image/text in the Anthropocene: Event, Technology and the PostHuman (RP)
Week 11 Student presentations/essay preparation (DS/MH/RP)
Week 12 Student presentations/essay preparation (DS/MH/RP)
Assessment
Students will write an essay of 3,500-5,000 words and/or make a presentation on an approved topic relating to course content and covering at least two of the course texts or course authors (or one course text and one other). Essays should be submitted within four weeks of the end of the semester in which the course is taught.