Art History: Art: Politics: Transgression: 20th Century Avant-Gardes – (M.Litt.)

* MLitt: 12 months full-time; 24 months part-time

Closely focused on the visual and historical specificities of the subject, the core teaching will have you examining the politically oppositional and ‘transgressive’ impulses of the avant-garde.

You will interpret ‘transgression’ in the widest sense and in relation to a range of diverse historical contexts: eg the anti-art concerns of Dada; the political tensions arising from conflicts between nationalist and internationalist currents in Central European art early in the 20th century; the Nietzschian/Bataillean testing of the boundaries of conventional moral positions, particularly regarding sexual identity and the body.

The optional courses available to you are closely geared to the research interests of the staff, their content will draw upon current exhibitions and debates.

Core courses

* Research forum
* Research and professional skills
* Theories of the Avant Garde
* Readings in Duchamp: anti-art, blasphemy, sexuality
* Dada in Switzerland and Germany.

Optional courses

You may choose from the following options in the College of Arts

* a Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) course: 2D Digitisation (Theory and Practice)
* a course from the MLitt Modernities: Modernism, Modernity & Post-Modernity run by English Literature
* a course from elsewhere in the College of Arts, subject to the approval of the programme convenor.

Or from these courses run by History of Art

* Art in the making: Modern & Avant-Garde techniques
* Independent study
* Work placement.