SE2461: Introduction to Visual Culture

School English Literature
Department Code ENCAP
Module Code SE2461
External Subject Code 100319
Number of Credits 20
Level L6
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Professor Julia Thomas
Semester Spring Semester
Academic Year 2013/4

Outline Description of Module

The module will analyse the complex ways in which paintings and other visual art forms generate meanings and how they can be ‘read’ by the viewer.

 

On completion of the module a student should be able to

analyse the meanings of a variety of images with reference to style, genre, materiality and cultural context; use the vocabulary necessary for this analysis; engage with a range of theoretical perspectives and critical ideas about visual culture.

How the module will be delivered

Timetabled sessions include lectures and discussion sessions where students have the opportunity to make presentations and/or lead discussion. Lectures are usually supplemented with handouts summarising content, which will be available on Learning Central in advance of the classes. Digitised images are used extensively.

 

There will be a two-hour weekly lecture supported by a one-hour seminar. The lectures, which will include small group discussion and support, aim to introduce students to different images and provide key knowledge about and critical perspectives on aspects of visual culture; the seminars provide the opportunity for students to employ the skills they have learnt in the lectures in order to discuss and give presentations on their own choice of visual material.

 

Skills that will be practised and developed

The particular skill of the module includes analysing and understanding how paintings and other art forms generate meanings. This requires close reading/viewing skills, an historical awareness, and knowledge of the different ways in which visual images signify. Employability skills include the ability to synthesise information, a critical awareness of visual culture, and participation in group-based discussion involving negotiating ideas and producing clear, informed arguments.

 

How the module will be assessed

The module is assessed by one piece of written work in which students will be expected to analyse paintings and other art forms in a critical and theoretically-informed way.

Type of assessment

Title

Duration (exam) /

Word length (essay)

Approx. date of assessment

Essay

100%

 

3200

May

 

 

 

 

 

 

The module is assessed according to the Marking Criteria set out in the English Literature Course Guide. There are otherwise no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.

 

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 100 Essay N/A

Syllabus content

The main reading material for this module is collected in a printed course reader. Students should contact the module leader as early as possible if they will require readings in an alternative format.

 

Art and culture

Perspective

Portraits

Landscape

Still Life

Photography

Narrative images

Word and image

Production and reproduction

 

Essential Reading and Resource List

INDICATIVE READING AND RESOURCE LIST:

 

Indicative reading

John Berger, Ways of Seeing (Penguin and BBC, 1972)

Norman Bryson, Looking at the Overlooked: Four Essays on Still Life Painting (Reaktion, 1990)

Richard Brilliant, Portraiture (Reaktion, 2001)

Stephen Melville and Bill Readings (eds), Vision and Textuality (Macmillan, 1995)

Jonathan Miller, On Reflection (National Gallery, 1998)

Linda Nochlin, Women, Art and Power and other Essays (Thames and Hudson, 1988)

Julia Thomas, Victorian Narrative Painting (Tate, 2000)

---, Pictorial Victorians: The Inscription of Values in Word and Image (Ohio UP, 2004)

 


Copyright Cardiff University. Registered charity no. 1136855