Textual and Visual Studies (M.Phil.) – (M.Phil.)

Contents

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.

ECTS allocation : 2 x 10 credits (22 contact hours per module; student work load 240 hours per module)
Module Coordinators : David Scott/Johnnie Gratton
Teaching Staff : David Scott, Cormac O Cuilleanain (Semester 1); Johnnie Gratton, Justin Doherty, Mads Haahr (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. The focus of the first core module will be on the graphic arts (poster, postage stamp, typography) while the second core module will examine photography, 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 (photography, cinema) or themes (the city, avant-gardes, national identity).

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

Semester 1: Core Module 1 - Introduction to Theory of Text & Image in Graphics 1. General Introduction to course
2. Word/Image relations 1: Word/image Theory/practice (DS)
3. Word/Image relations 2: Rhetoric of text/image (DS)
4. Word/Image relations 3: Word/image and Speed (DS)
5. Word/Image relations 4: Visual Metonymies (DS)
6. Word/Image relations: Typography 1 (COC)
7. STUDY WEEK
8. Word/Image relations: Typography 2 (COC)
9. Visual semiotics 1: Airline logos (DS)
10. Visual semiotics 2: Postage stamps as indexes (DS)
11. Visual semiotics 3: Postage stamps as icons (DS)
12. Review session (DS/COC)

Semester 2: Core Module 2 - Introduction to theory of Text & Image
in photography, cinema and modern digital media 1. General Introduction to course
2. Word/Image in photography 1: Photographic Theory: Index/Icon (JG)
3. Word/Image in photography 2: Barthes: La Chambre claire (JG)
4. Word/Image in photography 3: Mitchell: Exchange and Resistance (JG)
5. Word/Image in photography 4: Rancière: Seeable/Sayable (JG)
6. Word & Image in cinema: 1 Eisenstein (JD)
7. STUDY WEEK
8. Word/Image in cinema: 2 Vertov (JD)
9. Word/Image in cinema: 3 Tarkovsky, Mirror (JD)
10. Word/Image in digital media 1 (MH)
11. Word/Image in digital media 2 (MH)
12. Review session (JG/JD/MH)

Assessment Students will write an essay of 3,500-5,000 words 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). It should be submitted within four weeks of the end of the semester in which the course is taught.

OptionsAs well as taking the two Core Modules (Introduction to Textual & Visual Studies), students select four optional modules at 10 ECTS each, from a range of modules provided by the course or allowed withi the School or the Faculty. Please consult with the Course Directors before making modules choices.

The modules provided withn the course are listed below. Please note that all course elements are provided subject to availability in any given year or term.

* Figurations of the European City: Berlin (click for details)
* The Russian Avant-Garde
* The Photograph as Illustration
* Figurations of European National Identities
* Representations of the Other Europe: Cinema in Communist and Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe