Dr Gavin Parkinson

Dr Parkinson will be away on research leave for the majority of the Autumn term. This part of the course will be taught by a qualified replacement and Dr Parkinson will resume teaching in early December.


course description

 

Taking case studies from the period of mainly French modern art extending from the turn of the twentieth century to the 1950s, this course focuses on the interpretation of modernism by writers associated with post-structuralism and postmodernism. We look at the political, social, and cultural contexts in which certain canonical artists worked, apply literary, linguistic, and anthropological theory to their art, and use contemporary historical theory to discuss the operation of narrative, interpretation, explanation, and truth in the writing of art history. The course is concerned throughout with the connectivity between modernism and post-structuralism and postmodernism, and novels by some of the major figures of the period of literary modernism therefore make up part of the reading material (Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf). The course looks to students to develop their own interests and is especially receptive to those keen to engage in experimental and creative writing on art; individuals with previous knowledge of art history, literary theory, semiotics, philosophy, French studies, and history are also particularly encouraged to apply. Among the main artists and writers included in the course are Hans, Arp, Antonin Artaud, Roland Barthes, Georges Bataille, Hans Bellmer, Maurice Blanchot, André Breton, Michel de Certeau, Giorgio de Chirico, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Marcel Duchamp, Michel Foucault, Clifford Geertz, Alberto Giacometti, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, René Magritte, Stéphane Mallarmé, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Francis Ponge, Jacques Rancière, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Philippe Sollers, and Hayden White.

language and other requirements


Standard entry requirements.