Course Syllabus

JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "AH 340"
COURSE NAME: "Theories and Methods of Art History"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring 2015

SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Yvonne Dohna
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS: MW 11:30 AM 12:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: One previous course in Art History or permission of the instructor
OFFICE HOURS: Monday 12:45- 1:45 or by appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will introduce students to a range of critical theories of the image from the modern and contemporary periods. While much of these theories have their roots in literary studies and other language-based disciplines, we will pay particular attention to the ways they been selected, explored and applied by philosophers and critics. However, we will also consider the limits of these theories when thinking about the specificity of visual images. We will not only explore what critical theories can tell us about images; we will also consider the dialogic capacity of images.

SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
The course is divided into five parts. The first part talks about the iconic diversion, which introduces the ‘coming back’ of images (Boehm), the new approach to iconology (Belting) and the question: “what do images want to express? (Mitchell). The second part is dedicated to the difference between the story of art and that of the image (Bredekamp). In the third part we will focus on the perception of images (Merleau-Ponty), forms (Arnheim), and the Iconic (Imdahl). The fourth part moves our attention to the “reading of images” (Bal), the word-image and the art-image (Gadamer), semiotics (Schapiro) and the image which burns (Benjamin, Didi-Huberman). The final and fifth part is about the reproduction of a work of art (Benjamin) which introduces the power of images, and discusses empathy and esthetic experiences (Friedberg), as well as the psychological effects (Freud and Lacan). We will read these authors bearing in mind their cultural and historical contexts. Every theory of the image will be demonstrated by one exemplary interpretation in order to render the students familiar with these theories.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
The course provides an opportunity for a sustained consideration of what it might mean to “write with images” (Rogoff) or practice “image critique” (Manghani). Students will gain an understanding of how an image can be analyzed, on both a practical and theoretical level. They will have a good working familiarity with the standard terminology and techniques of the analysis of an image, a broad understanding of different sorts of historical interpretations, and a capacity to analyze these strategies critically. They will also acquire the appropriate tools with which to approach new and unfamiliar works. Presentations in class and personal written essays should give the students the chance to defend one aspect of interpretation. Thorough analyses and discussions will put the emphasis on the formation of conceptual thinking and help students find critical access to the theories of images. They will have learned to carry out research and answer questions with the help of specific bibliography.

TEXTBOOK:

Book Title	Author	Publisher	ISBN number	Library Call Number	Comments	Format	Local Bookstore	Online Purchase
Methods and Theories of Art History	Anne D’Alleva	London: Laurence King Publishers	ISBN 9781856698993

REQUIRED RESERVED READING:

NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:

NONE

GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:

Assignment	Guidelines	Weight
- Final Research Paper		20%
- Weekly Papers		30%
- Mid Term		10%
- Final Exam:		20%
- Class participation		20%

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the cour
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.

-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
This course will introduce students to a range of critical theories of the image from the modern and contemporary periods. While much of these theories have their roots in literary studies and other language-based disciplines, we will pay particular attention to the ways they been selected, explored and applied by philosophers and critics. However, we will also consider the limits of these theories when thinking about the specificity of visual images. We will not only explore what critical theories can tell us about images; we will also consider the dialogic capacity of images.

ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.

STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.

SCHEDULE

Week 1: ( ) Introduction to the Course

Week 2: ( ) G. Boehm, Image, Theory, What is an image? Research

Read: D’Alleva, “Thinking Through Theory”, pp. 1-16 •Donald Preziosi, “Art History: Making the Visible Legible”, in Preziosi, pp. 7-11 •Irit Rogoff, “What is a Theorist” (blackboard) •Marquard Smith, “Introduction: Why ‘What Is Research in the Visual Arts? Obsession, Archive, Encounter’?”, •Jonathan Culler, “What is Theory?” from Literary Theory:

Week 3 ( ) H. Belting,
Read: - H. Belting, Likeness and present: a history of the image before the era of art, 1994;
- H. Belting, The End of the History of Art? Translated by C.S. Wood, Chicago, 1987;
- H. Belting, Art history after modernism, 2003;
- H. Belting, Bill Viola: the passions, a conversation between Hans Belting and Bill Viola, 2003

Week 4: ( ) M. Merleau-Ponty, Perception
Read: The nature of perception: two proposals, 1933, The doubt of Cezanne’s Doubt, 1945, Phenomenology of perception, 1945, The battler over existencialism, 1945, Husserl and the limits of phenomenology (Lecture course) , \960, The visible and the invisible, 1959-61 (unfinished), Eye and mind 1960, The primacy of perception, 1962. (An Unpublished Text by Maurice Merleau-Ponty: A Prospectus of His Work)

Week 5: ( ) W.J.T Mitchell, What does images want?
Read; “Introduction” & “What is an Image” in Iconology: Image, Text,
Ideology, pp. 1-46 , W.J.T. Michell, The Language of
Images, Chicago and London 1974, pp. 42-56 . Michell, The Language of Images,
Chicago and London 1974.; W.J.T. A.C. Danto, The Body/Body problem. Selected
Essays, 1999, p. 184 -201;

Week 6: ( ) M. Bal, M. Schapiro, Semiotics

Read: D’Alleva, Chapter 2, “The analysis of form, symbol, and sign,” 28-45 •Kaja Silverman, “From Sign to Subject: A Short History” in The Subject of Semiotics, pp. 3-53 (Mieke Bal and Norman Bryson, “Semiotics and Art History” in Preziosi, pp. 243-255 •Mieke Bal, “Seeing Signs: The Use of Semiotics for the Understanding of Visual Art”, in Cheetham, Holly & Moxey, eds. The Subjects of Art History: Historical Objects in Contemporary Perspectives,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 74-93 . M. Schapiro, Theory and philosophy of art: style, artist and society, 1994 (chap. 1). M. Schapiro, The unity of Picasso’s Art, New York, 2000 (Chap. Einstein and Picasso) Only for the written paper: M. Schapiro, Theory and philosophy of art: style, artist and society, 1994. M. Schapiro, M. Schapiro, Words, script and pictures: semiotics of visual language, New York, 1996.

Week 7: ( ) W. Benjamin, Marxism & Materialism

Read: D’Alleva, Chapter 3: “Art’s Contexts: The History of Ideas. Marxist and materialist perspectives on art,” pp. 46-60 IDEOLOGY • “Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas” excerpt from The German Ideology by Marx and Engels (1845-1846) Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” (excerpt) from Visual Culture: The Reader, pp. 317-323 •Mitchell, “The Rhetoric of Iconoclasm: Marx, Ideology and Fetishism” in Iconology, pp. 160-208 , •Douglas Kellner, “The Frankfurt School” pp. 1-6 •Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, “Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (1944) from Dialectic of Enlightenment, New York: Continuum, 1993, pp. 120-167 Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936), Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, ed. Hannah Arendt, New York: Schocken Books, 1968, 217-251

Week 8: ( ) Pollock, Feminist Theory & Politics Read: D’Alleva, Chapter 3: “Art’s Contexts. Feminisms.” 60-70 •Linda Nochlin, “Why Have there Been No Great Woman Artists”, [1971] from Women, Art and Power (e-reserve) •Patricia Matthews, “The Politics of Feminist Art History”, in The Subjects of Art History, pp. 94-114 (e-reserve) •Amelia Jones, “Every Man Knows Where and How Beauty Gives Him Pleasure”, in Preziosi, pp. 375-390. Griselda Pollock, Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and Histories of Art, London. 1988. Griselda Pollock, Old Mistresses: Woman Art and Ideology, London 1987

MID TERM

Week 9: ( ) Didi-Huberman and the image which burns
Read: G. Didi-Huberman Fra Angelic, Dissemblance and Figuration, 1995; Didi-Huberman, Confronting images, Questioning the ends of a certain history of art , 1990.

Week 10: ( ) Hans Georg-Gadamer, the art of the image and the art of the word
Read: Gadamer and Ricoeur, ed. By, G. H. Taylor, Francis J. Mootz, 2011. Kristin Gjesdal, Gadamer and the Legacy of German Idealism, 2011.

Week 11: ( ) Freud & Lacan Psychoanalysis & the Subject:

Read: D’Alleva, Chapter 4: “Psychology and Perception in Art – Art History and Psychoanalysis,” 88-108 •Jacques Lacan, The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I”, pp. 1-7 (Blackboard) •Sigmund Freud “Fetishism”, pp. 324-326 •Kaja Silverman, “The Subject” in The Subject of Semiotics, pp. 126-193 •Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”

Week 12: ( ) Imdahl, Arnheim, Kemp, Fried, Reception Theory &

Hermeneutics Read: D’Alleva, Chapter 4: “Psychology and Perception in

Art – Reception Theory I: they psychology of art; Reception Theory II:
reader response theory and the aesthetics of reception,” 109-121; Chapter

5: “Taking a stance toward knowledge – Hermeneutics,” 122-131. •Roland

Barthes, “The Death of the Author” •Stephen Melville, “Phenomenology

and the Limits of Hermeneutics” in Subjects of Art History, pp. 143-154
•Wolfgang Kemp, “The Work of Art and Its Beholder: The Methodology of
the Aesthetic of Reception” in Subjects of Art History, pp. 180-196
•Michael Fried, “Art and Objecthood” •Morris “Notes on Sculpture” or
Smithson (TBA) -M. Fried, Absorption and Theatricality, Painting and Beholder in the
Age of Diderot, Berkley/Los Angeles/London 1980, pp. 24-32, - R. Arnheim, Art and
Visual Perception, Berkeley /Los Angeles 1954, M. Imdahl, Barnett Newman, “Who’s
Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III” in: Gesammelte Schriften, vol.1, p. 244-270; R.
Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception, Berkeley /Los Angeles 1954 (Introduction). M.
Fried, Absorption and Theatricality, Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot,
Berkley/Los Angeles/London 1980

Week 13: ( ) Barthes Structuralism & Post-Structuralism Read: D’Alleva, Chapter 5: “Taking a stance toward knowledge – Structuralism and post-structuralism,” 131-143. •Roland Barthes, “The Rhetoric of the Image” in Image, Music, Text. Ed. and trans. Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977. 32-51 •Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, trans. Richard Howard, New York: Hill and Wang, 1980.

Week 14: ( ) Lyotard, Postmodernism Read: D’Alleva, Chapter 5: “Taking a stance toward knowledge – Postmodernism as condition and practice, 149-158 •Jean-Francois Lyotard, “Answering the Question: What Is Postmodernism?” in Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Minneapolis; University of Minnesota Press, 1984, pp. 71-82. •Jean Baudrillard, “The Precession of Simulacra,” (1983) in Brian Wallis, ed. Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation, pp. 253-281 (e-reserve) •Douglas Crimp, “Pictures,” Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation, 175-187 •Hal Foster, “Re: Post,” Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation, pp. 189-201 •Craig Owens, “The Discourse of Others: Feminists and Postmodernism”, in Preziosi, pp. 335-351

Wek 16: ( ) SUMMARY and RESEARCH PAPERS DUE month day