Visual culture and everyday postal practices in the era of modernism 3002-KON2023K6-OG

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the telegraph, telephone

and cinematograph already existed, but – contrary to
popular approach of media studies – the significance of these
„inventions“ in everyday life was minimal. Real life – individual
and social – took place "in" and "thanks to" the analog NETWORK
of postal communication, with its massive usage of photographic
postcards.
The course will be based on archival materials from the era (mainly
French). I believe that their analysis will allow for a significant
"reconfiguration" of many aspects of "everyday modernism",
especially the visual practices characteristic of this era.
We will discuss, among others, popular genres of postal
publications of the time (in the following decades, they were
replaced by film): multi-episode, sometimes consisting of several
dozen cards, photo-reports from current events; staged in the studio,
also multi-episode photo-stories on various topics. It should be
emphasized, however, that the main research objective of the course
will be to examine not the publications themselves, but above all
the real ways of using them by users of the "network" (as Michel de
Certeau would say: their "secondary production"). Other areas of
postal practices will be analysed in a similar manner. One of them
is the Mail Art practiced daily at that time, consisting of e.g.,
personalization of the pictoral page of the postcards sent.

Type of course

general courses

Mode

Classroom

Course coordinators

Wojciech Michera

Learning outcomes

The graduate knows and understands selected methodologies of cultural
studies, cognitive strategies and applied research methods to an advanced
degree; methods of analysis and interpretation of cultural practices and
texts; selected trends and tools in the history of visual arts and film. The
graduate is able to interpret the collected material, taking into account the
historical, social and political context; use research methodology and tools
of the humanities;

Bibliography

– Małgorzata Baranowska, Posłaniec uczuć, Warszawa 2003.

– Paweł Banaś, Orbis pictus. Świat dawnej karty pocztowej, Wydawnictwo
Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2005
– Michel de Certeau, Wynaleźć codzienność. Sztuki działania, przeł.
Katarzyna Thiel-Jańczuk, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego,
Kraków 2008
– Rafał Drozdowski, Wokół społecznych badań nad codziennością, w: Życie
codzienne [w] archiwum, Poznań 1019.
– Wojciech Michera, „Cras leges”. Pocztowe jutro, „Konteksty” 2022, nr 1–2.
– Wojciech Michera, Brakujące ogniwo w historii modernizmu: poczta,
„Konteksty” 2022, nr 3
– Aline Ripert, Claude Frère, La carte postale, son histoire, sa fonction sociale,
CNRS Éditions, Paris 1983 (2001)
– Naomi Schor, Cartes Postales: Representing Paris 1900, „Critical Inquiry”
1992, t. 18, nr 2
– David Scott, European Stamp Design. A Semiotic Approach To Designing
Messages, Academy Editions, London 1995
– Zef Segal, Postal Communication as a Social Network, [w:] tenże, The Political
Fragmentation of Germany, Palgrave MacMilan 2019

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

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Description of 3002-KON2023K6-OG in USOSweb