Undergraduate Course: Sexual Politics and the Image (HIAR10066)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course looks at how sexual politics is implicated in the production and reception of images in art and related visual fields. Encountered in feminist criticism since the 1960s, the term 'sexual politics' has revolutionised approaches to the image in art history (and the humanities at large) as it allows us to think of sex and gender in relation to frameworks of power that can, and should, be negotiated in the public domain. A focus on 'sexual politics' helps illuminate how images play a role in the social demand for gender equality and the exploration of sexual difference. The deployment of the word 'politics' in this context suggests that the interests of diverse and unequal social groups are expressed in the image, which can therefore never be 'neutral' and autonomous from social processes - even if it appears so. On the contrary, both making and looking at images should be understood as social practices.
Drawing on groundbreaking feminist theory, the course examines a variety of practices since the 1960s that have defined the expanded field of the visual, and artistic practice in general. Key moments in this review may include: the connection between gendered identities in real life and spaces of representation; the intersection of gender, race and class; sexual politics and curatorial practices; the impact of feminism on art history as a discipline; the emergence of performance and video and their impact on challenging mainstream attitudes; the significance of feminist film theory; post-feminist approaches to the sexed subject; gender in relation to technology; social reproduction, biopolitics and the socio-economic processes known as 'globalisation'. |
| Course description |
Not entered
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have completed at least 3 History of Art courses at grade B or above, and we will only consider University/College level courses. **Please note that 3rd year History of Art courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces. These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand and have knowledge of the diverse ways by and through which conscious or unconscious positions on gender and/or sexuality structure the making and reception of images, especially those in art, and the role of feminist scholarship in the analysis of such positions.
- Understand and have knowledge of a wide range of images as well as well as a core body of theory pertaining to the course subject; also of the significance of specific media and theoretical paradigms of relevance to the course subject.
- Understand and have knowledge of how and why artists, filmmakers, theorists and historians, sought to subvert the conventions defining geneder and sexual norms in connection with broader social demands in their historical context.
- Approach critically (in writing and orally; please see Feedback below) a variety of images and arguments relating to images; and how to contextualise in an academic context the role of sexual politics in relation to the production and use of images.
- Participate with confidence in debates that continue to fuel arguments in contemporary art theory and practice but that concern everyday life as well; how to formulate and assess your own theoretical position/s and informed views in relation to images and texts; how to structure arguments that respect (do not underplay) the complexity of the positions encountered in art and its theory.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Angela Dimitrakaki
Tel:
Email: angela.dimitrakaki@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Sue Cavanagh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1460
Email: Sue.Cavanagh@ed.ac.uk |
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