Postgraduate Course: THEORISING THE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE (HIAR11047)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | History of Art |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://www.arthistory.ed.ac.uk |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course will introduce students to some of the key issues in photographic theory from its beginnings in the 1840s to the present. What distinguishes photography from other forms of representation? What is the meaning of a photograph? Should photography be considered an art form? How should the history of photography be written? These and other questions will be addressed through close readings of seminal texts by William Henry Fox Talbot, Charles Baudelaire, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, Vilem Flusser, and other critics, theorists, and philosophers. We will begin by engaging with mid-to-late nineteenth-century writings pre-occupied with photography's scientific/technological dimensions and the medium's artistic status and uses, move to influential twentieth-century texts such as Benjamin's 'Small History of Photography' (1931), Sontag's On Photography (1977), and Barthes's Camera Lucida (1980) focused on the social, cultural, and psychological functions of photographic images, and their 'indexical' nature, and conclude with late twentieth and early twenty-first-century photographic and media theory that problematises realist views of photographic truth in the context of digitisation. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
The principal aims of this course are as follows:
* To provide knowledge of major issues and problematics that the theory of photography has engaged with since its beginnings in the 1840s to the present
* To provide a comprehensive overview of the historical development of photographic theory within a broader cultural context
* To engage with the history and theory of photography through close critical readings of key texts
* To provide a context for students to develop research skills and interests in relation to the history and theory of photography
Students successfully completing this course will acquire the following skills and knowledge:
* An well-rounded knowledge of key issues in photographic theory and history
* Knowledge of the conceptual strategies and methodologies of key authors in photographic theory
* The ability to distinguish, classify, and historicise major arguments in photographic theory and to relate them to a larger socio-cultural context
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Assessment Information
| 4,000 word essay |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kathrin Yacavone
Tel:
Email: kathrin.yacavone@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lucy Hawkins
Tel: (0131 6)51 5734
Email: Lucy.Hawkins@ed.ac.uk |
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