Course content

This course addresses visual culture both as phenomena and academic field. Through texts from different disciplines, like media studies, art history, philosophy, sociology and anthropology, the course investigates problems like: why, and how, has the visual come to a such an exceptional position in western cultures? What characterizes different visual cultures in different historical epochs? What qualities do we assign to images and what power do they exert on us? How do we value the cultural status of different images? What is visual culture?

Learning outcome

Knowledge

Upon successful completion of this course, students will have:

• advanced insight into selected works from across the field of visual culture
• advanced knowledge of scholarly literature characteristic of visual culture studies, chiefly derived from a humanist hermeneutic tradition
• advance knowledge of key questions arising from the historical, theoretical and analytical study of visual culture
• understanding of key terms and insight into the main approaches to the study of visual culture
• an overview of the main disciplines which have contributed to the development of visual culture as a field of study and in-depth knowledge of certain contributions.

Skills

The students will be able to:

• outline the history, development and distribution of visual culture
• identify and analyse key characteristics of different visual cultures
• formulate and critically discuss research questions relevant to the field of visual culture studies
• write a longer text which independently and coherently either discusses a theoretical topic within visual culture studies or analyses a specific visual-cultural phenomenon using theoretical and methodological skills acquired as part of the course

Learning methods and activities

Lectures and seminars.

This course may be taught in Norwegian or English, pending staff availability.

Seminar tasks will be specified by the course convenor at the start of term.

Compulsory assignments

• 80 % participation in compulsory seminars

Specific conditions

Required previous knowledge

None.

Course materials

Approx. 1200 pages.

Credit reductions