Hong Kong Shue Yan University Department of English Language & Literature Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies
Course Title : Literature and Visual Culture
Course Code : ENG 510
Number of Credits : 3
Duration in Weeks : 14
Contact Hours per Week : Lecture (2 hours)
: Tutorial (1 hour)
Prepared by : Dr. Stephen WENINGER
Course Description:
Literature has had an ambivalent relationship to the visual arts. This course explores how the verbal arts and the visual arts inform one another and challenge the reading/viewing experience. Students are introduced to some key theoretical debates about visual culture and literary writing, and have the opportunity to engage with a diverse range of texts drawn from many genres (poetry, fiction, essays, painting, photography, comic books, and to a lesser extent, film). Topics covered include ekphrasis, textual illustration, the case of poet-painters, what has been termed “word painting” and the cinematic adaptation of literary texts. Special emphasis is placed on the resurgent and fluid genre of comic books (or graphic novels), texts traditionally regarded as juvenile or lowbrow. Students are thus encouraged to reflect on the ways such texts go beyond youthful subcultures and handle topical matters such as personal development, ethnic identity, social power, or trauma.
Course Outcomes, Teaching Activities and Assessment
Course Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) Upon completion of this course students should be able to: ILO1 analyze images and illustrations as well as narratives that accompany them ILO2 relate to diverse literary texts that engage the visual arts, and images that engage the verbal arts 2 ILO3 describe the historical, social and aesthetic contexts of the texts examined in the course ILO4 display an advanced knowledge of the key role of visual culture in the study of narrative in writing response papers ILO5 employ relevant theoretical terminology in the interpretation of narratives and images ILO6 design and deliver effective oral presentations on the juxtaposition of verbal and visual arts ILO7 research and compose written work that displays critical thought, creativity and intellectual independence
Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs) TLA1 critical reading and analysis of narrative and visual texts TLA2 explanation of theoretical and aesthetic issues TLA3 seminar discussion TLA4 oral presentations on the assigned texts TLA5 projection of images and screening of videos and film TLA6 response papers TLA7 term paper 3
Assessment Tasks (ATs) AT1 Participation and discussion 10% Students are to prepare discussion questions uploaded before class meetings and respond actively to specific points made by the lecturer as well as take part in class conversation. AT2 Seminar presentation 20% Students individually present a summary of term paper thesis, analysis, support, and working bibliography for discussion, critique and evaluation. AT3 Response papers (2) 30% These brief assignments not only demonstrate an understanding of an assigned text but also examine authorial assumptions and evidence, evaluate strengths and weaknesses, and raise possible counterarguments. AT4 Term paper 40% This culminating assignment allows students the opportunity to analyse in depth a specific interaction of image and text and demonstrate a solid grasp of the concepts and debates raised in the course. TOTAL 100%
Alignment of Course Intended Learning Outcomes, Teaching and Learning Activities and Assessment Tasks Course Intended Teaching and Learning Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes Activities ILO1 TLA1,2,3,5 AT1,3,4 ILO2 TLA1,2,3,6,7 AT1,2,3,4 ILO3 TLA1,2,3 AT1,2,3,4 ILO4 TLA1,2,3 AT2,3,4 ILO5 TLA1,2,3 AT2,3,4 ILO6 TLA4 AT1,2 ILO7 TLA1,2,6,7 AT3,4
Course Outline:
Week 1 Theorizing Visual Culture and Interart
Walker, John and Sarah Chaplin. “Visual Literacy and Visual Poetics.” In Visual Culture. An Introduction. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1997: 111-127.
Week 2 Textualizing the Visual: Ekphrasis
Cheeke, Stephen. “Ekphrasis”. In Writing for Art. The Aesthetics of Ekphrasis. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2011: 11-41.
Auden, W. H. “In the Musée des Beaux Arts” 4 Ashbery, John. “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”
Landow, George. “Ruskin’s Allegorical Interpretations of Turner” 10 March 2012
Week 3 Textual Illustration; Poet-painters
The Pre-Raphaelites and Julia Cameron on Tennyson Tennyson, Alfred Lord. “The Lady of Shallot”
Aubrey Beardsley on Oscar Wilde Premorac, Yelena. “Illustrating Wilde: An Examination of Aubrey Beardsley’s Interpretation of Wilde’s Salome.” 27 April 2009
William Blake and Dante Rossetti (selected poems and pictures TBA)
Week 4 Art as the Subject of Literature (ut pictura poesis)
Pater, Walter. “Leonardo da Vinci.” In The Renaissance. Studies in Art and Poetry. Berkeley: U of California P, 1980. 77-101.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Norton, 2006.
Week 5 Literature and Photography
Moore, Marianne. “Blue Bug”
Mishima, Yukio. Preface to Barakei [Ordeal by Roses] by Eikoh Hosoe. In Rabb Literature and Photography. 436-440.
Michals, Duane. “Things are Queer” in Rabb Literature and Photography 481-483.
Tournier, Michel. “Veronica’s Shrouds.” In Ed. Jane M. Rabb. The Short Story and Photography. 1880’s—1980’s. A Critical Anthology. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1998. 234-247.
Updike, John. “All in the Family.” In Rabb Literature and Photography 521-529.
Week 6 Literature, Film and Adaptation (China, cliché and Orientalism)
Ray, Robert. “The Field of ‘Literature and Film’” in Film Adaptation. Ed. James Naremore. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2000: 38-53.
Nochlin, Linda. “The Imaginary Orient.” In Eds. Vanessa Schwartz and Jeannene M. Przyblyski. The Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004: 287-298.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Preface to D’Une Chine à l’Autre by Henri 5
Cartier-Bresson. In Rabb Literature and Photography. 384-387.
Primary texts: Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932); The World of Suzie Wong (1960, Richard Quine; excerpts)
Week 7 Modernism: The Collage Novel & Concrete Poetry Post-modernism: Pastiche & Parody
Ernst, Max. Une Semaine de Bonté. A Surrealist Novel in Collage. New York: Dover: 1976.
Ballard, J. G. The Atrocity Exhibition. New York: Re/Search, 1990.
Week 8 The Graphic Novel (background; realism and fantasy)
Eisner, Will. A Contract with God Trilogy. New York: Norton, 2005.
Week 9 The Graphic Novel (history and trauma)
Spiegelman, Art. The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. London: Penguin, 2003.
Week 10 The Graphic Novel (hero and anti-hero)
Moore, Allan. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1986.
Week 11 Student Seminar Presentations & Discussion
Week 12 Student Seminar Presentations & Discussion Term paper consultations
Week 13 Student Seminar Presentations & Discussion Term paper consultations
Week 14 Recapitulation and Review
Academic Honesty You are expected to do your own work. Dishonesty in fulfilling any assignment undermines the learning process and the integrity of your college degree. Engaging in dishonest or unethical behavior is forbidden and will result in disciplinary action, specifically a failing grade on the assignment with no opportunity for resubmission. A second infraction will result in an F for the course and a report to College officials. Examples of prohibited behavior are: Cheating – an act of deception by which a student misleadingly demonstrates that s/he has mastered information on an academic exercise. Examples include: Copying or allowing another to copy a test, quiz, paper, or project Submitting a paper or major portions of a paper that has been previously submitted for another class without permission of the current instructor Turning in written assignments that are not your own work (including homework) 6 Plagiarism – the act of representing the work of another as one’s own without giving credit. Failing to give credit for ideas and material taken from others Representing another’s artistic or scholarly work as one’s own Fabrication – the intentional use of invented information or the falsification of research or other findings with the intent to deceive To comply with the University’s policy, the term essay and response paper must be submitted to VeriGuide.
Resources
Primary Texts
Eisner, Will. (2005) A Contract with God Trilogy. New York: W. W. Norton. Moore, Allan. (1986) Watchmen. New York: DC Comics. Spiegelman, Art. (2003) The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. London: Penguin. Wilde, Oscar. (2006) The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: W. W. Norton.
Some e-text links and some texts uploaded to ILN as PDF files.
Supplementary Texts
Cartmell, Deborah and Imelda Whelehan. (2010) Screen Adaptation. Impure Cinema. New York: Palgrave. ---, et al. eds. (2000) Classics in Film and Fiction. London: Pluto. Derrida, Jacques. (1987) Truth in Painting. Trans. Geoffrey Bennington. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Duncan, Randy and Matthew J. Smith. (2009) The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture. New York: Continuum. Eisner, Will. (1990) Comics and Sequential Art. New York: W. W. Norton. Flaxman, Rhoda. (1987) Victorian Word Painting and Narrative. Toward the Blending of Genre. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Howells, Richard and Joaquim Negreiros. (2012) Visual Culture. Cambridge: Polity. Levy, Ellen.(2011) Criminal Ingenuity. Moore, Cornell, Ashbery, and the Struggle Between the Arts. New York: Oxford University Press. Louie, Kam. Hong Kong Culture. Word and Image. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Miller, Hillis M. (1994) Illustration. Essays in Art and Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Mirzoeff, Nicholas. ed. (2009) An Introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Routledge. ---, ed. (2012) The Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge. Mitchell, W. J. T. (1995) Picture Theory. Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. 7
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Rabb, Jane M. ed. (1995) Literature and Photography. Interactions 1840-1990. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.