EN 709 Visual Culture (Spring: 3)

This course will introduce students to basic concepts in the field of visual culture studies. We will explore potential and limitations of a semiotic approach to reading images drawn from popular culture and high art (with help of Roland Barthes, John Berger, Mieke Bal, WJT Mitchell and others). Readings will engage with the history of seeing as it is continually transformed by technology, ideology, and various cultural institutions of knowledge and control (through Benjamin, Crary, Krauss and others). Theoretical readings will take us through methodologies and disciplines including psychoanalysis, political theory, aesthetics, deconstruction, gender studies, philosophy, and (yes, even) literature.
Robin Lydenberg

Last Updated: 29-JAN-13