Image and Text 1780-1880 (833Q3B)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

Concentrating on the intersections between visual and verbal cultures in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this module explores the intricate inter-relationships of visual images and texts (poetry, non-fictional prose, and fiction). Beginning with Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757) and Immanuel Kant's 'Analytic of the Sublime' from The Critique of Judgement (1790), in relationship to recent theoretical work on the sublime (by Lyotard and Eagleton for example), we consider the aesthetic of the sublime as played out in painting and in art theory. Subsequent topics include: the case of the Elgin Marbles; Ekphrasis; discourses of the grotesque in John Ruskin and William Morris; poetry and scientific discourse; Pre-Raphaelitism; the history and theory of nineteenth century photography; representations of childhood in Lewis Carroll, Christina Rossetti and J.M. Barrie; 'Symbolism' and the 'Supernatural'.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 278 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2020/21. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.