Course content

Why and how did the visual come to occupy a privileged position in western cultures? This course addresses visual culture both as a phenomenon and an academic field. Drawing on perspectives from different disciplines, from media studies and art history to philosophy, sociology, and anthropology, it explores questions such as: What characterizes different visual cultures at different historical moments? What qualities do we assign to pictures and what kinds of power do they seem to exert over us? What are the economic functions that pictures serve, and how do we assess their cultural status and value?

Learning outcome

Knowledge

Upon successful completion of this course, students will have:

• An understanding of key terms and insight into the main approaches to the study of visual culture.
• An overview of the main disciplines which have contributed to the development of visual culture as a field of study and in-depth knowledge of certain contributions.
• Thorough knowledge of scholarly literature relevant to the study of visual culture, chiefly derived from a humanist hermeneutic tradition.
• Advanced knowledge of key questions arising from the historical, theoretical and analytical study of visual culture.

Skills

The students will be able to:

• Give an account of visual culture as an interdisciplinary field of study.
• Identify and analyse key characteristics of different visual cultures.
• Formulate and critically discuss research questions relevant to the field of visual culture studies.
• Write a longer text which independently and coherently either discusses a theoretical topic within visual culture studies or analyses a specific visual-cultural phenomenon using theoretical and methodological skills acquired as part of the course.

Learning methods and activities

Up to 4 hours of teaching per week, organised as a mix of lectures, seminars, and reflection groups.

Seminar tasks will be specified by the course convenor at the start of term.

Compulsory assignments

• 80 % class attendance

Specific conditions

Required previous knowledge

None.

Course materials

Approx. 1200 pages of readings, potentially including self-selected readings relating to the individual term paper.

Credit reductions