The Visual and the Written in the 19th Century 3300-KB-MSF-2-ZP
This course aims at exploring various possibilities of interpretation that open up by juxtaposing the chosen works of the 19th century poetry with their visual representations by the leading artists of the age, mostly those connected with the Pre-Raphaelite school. The reading list of primary sources will include the poems of William Blake, John Keats, Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning. These poems will be studied together with their illustrations by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John William Waterhouse, Frank Cadogan Cowper, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Laurence Housman, Arthur Rackham in order to see the complex relationships between the visual and the written form of artistic expression. Students will also read chosen fragments from longer texts of John Ruskin, Walter Pater, Robert Buchanan, defining the aesthetic context of the 19th century art. At the beginning of the course some time will be spent on revising the grounds of the ut pictura poesis debate and its position in the 19th century. Additionally, we will look at Victorian standards of art and establish the conventions normative for this period. Some time will be spent on discussing the establishing and the development of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the reception that these artists received in Victorian England.While studying William Blake's poetry we will discuss the specific case on an artist illustrating his own poems. This will also lead to a discussion about Blake's vision of the states of Innocence and Experience and his views on femininity. Reading John Keats the students will explore the convention of the fatal woman and how it works in Keats's poetry, in addition to the themes of the imagination, dream and illusion. Chosen illustrations will enable us to see how the Victorian artists read and interpreted Keats. Tennyson's poetry will be a continuation of the discussion about gender and traditional male and female roles in society. Various visual interpretations of The Lady of Shalott will show the popularity of the poem among Pre-Raphaelite artists. This theme will be continued in the poetry and painting of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with his ideal and fallen or fatal women and his elaboration of the notion of the Victorian angel in the house. Robert Browning's poetry will be used to talk about the concept of ekphrasis - verbal representation of the visual. Finally, Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti will sum up the discussion on femininity in the 19th century. Illustrations of various artists for the same poem will emphasise their contrary interpretations, thus enhancing the ambiguity of Rossetti's text. The course ends with a written open-questions test.
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
The student has knowledge of:
K_W01: the place and significance of literary studies within the humanities, and its connections with the study of art, culture and nineteenth-century aesthetics.
K_W02: selected issues in the history of nineteenth-century English literature, understood in a systematic way, and their importance for the development of literary theory and reflections on the relations between the arts.
K_W03: advanced specialist terminology and basic research methodologies in literary studies, with particular emphasis on intermedial analysis and ekphrasis.
K_W09: the multifaceted relationships between literature and the historical, cultural and aesthetic contexts of the Victorian period.
Skills
The student is able to:
K_U01: apply basic theoretical approaches in literary studies to the analysis of poetry and its relationship with visual art.
K_U02: formulate interpretative problems, select appropriate methods for analysing text and image, and present results in accordance with the principles of academic ethics and copyright law.
K_U03: identify, analyse and interpret nineteenth-century English poetry within its historical and cultural context, using specialist terminology.
K_U07: prepare oral presentations and clearly articulate independent interpretative viewpoints.
K_U12: plan and organise independent work, including the reading of literary and theoretical texts.
K_U14: independently acquire knowledge and develop interpretative skills using appropriate academic sources.
Social Competences
The student is ready to:
K_K01: critically evaluate their own knowledge, skills and interpretative practices.
K_K03: adopt and promote an open attitude towards diverse cultural and interpretative perspectives.
K_K04: demonstrate care for the preservation of nineteenth-century literary and artistic heritage.
K_K06:observe the principles of academic and professional ethics.
Assessment criteria
Final grade is determined by:
-ongoing assessment of the student's work during the semester: active participation in classes, presentation in class (optional); submission of 2-3 response papers during the semester.
-written test at the end of semester, in the form of open questions; the test may be administered in class or on the Moodle platform.
- test retake: in oral form
Three absences are allowed in a semester.
Bibliography
Berger, John. (1977) Ways of Seeing.
Bruder, Helen. (1997) ‘The Sins of the Fathers: Patriarchal Criticism and The Book of Thel’ from: William Blake and the Daughters of Albion
Eaves, Morris (2006) The Cambridge Companion to William Blake
Harrison, Anthony (1989) Parody and Ideology’ Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 29.4..
Harrisson, Charles (ed) (1998) Art in Theory 1815-1900: An anthology of changing ideas.
Heffernan, James (1993) Museum of Words. The Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery.
Hill, Marylu. (2005) ‘Eat me, drink me, love me: Eucharist and the Erotic Body in Goblin Market. Victorian Poetry 43.4
Hilton, Timothy (1970) The Pre-Raphaelites.
Mash, J. (1995) The Pre-Raphaelite Women: Images of Femininity in Pre-Raphaelite art.
Pater, Walter Art for Art's Sake, Style (excerpts)
Pearce, Lynne (1991) Woman/Image/Text. Readings in Pre-Raphaelite Art and Literature.
Kathy Psomiades (1992) ‘Body’s Beauty: Gender Ideology and British Aestheticism’ Victorian Studies 36.1.
Riede, David (ed) (1992) Critical Essays on D.G. Rossetti.
Sturken, Marita, Lisa Cartwright (2009)Practices of Looking. Oxford University Press.
Swan, Karen (1988) 'Harrassing the Muse' from: Mellor, Ann. Romanticism and Feminism.
Treuherz, Julian (1993) Victorian Painting.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: