Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Lecture | 15 hours of lectures and seminars |
| Seminars / Tutorials |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Critical Assessment A critical essay engaging with theory and philosophy and involving art historical research (2000 words, plus annotated bibliograhy and documented illustrations) | 50% |
| Semester Exam | 2 Hours Examination Two-hour examination (seen paper) | 50% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Identify key artists and themes associated with the Gothic/gothic
Understand the historical contexts and philosophical concepts undelying Gothic/gothic art
Provide meaningful definitions of the art historical term 'Gothic' when applied to medieval and Romantic art
Debate the usefulness of the label 'gothic' when applied to modern/postmodern and contemporary art and visual culture
Aims
This interdisciplinary theory module draws on and complements period and genre specific art history modules by identifying a number of recurring gothic themes and examining them in changing social, political and art historical contexts. It encourages students to make connections between topics, media and movements they might otherwise see in isolation.
Brief description
The Gothic Imagination investigates major themes in Western philosophy and visual culture and relates the gothic to present day concerns and postmodern anxieties about war and revolution, human rights and religious freedom, disease and genetic engineering, ecology and apocalypse.
Drawing on 18th-century aesthetics, the writings of Ruskin and the Romantics, and late-20th/early 21st-century art historians, the module explores, links and interconnects the works of artists as diverse as Dinos and Jake Chapman, Thomas Cole, Anna Gaskell, Henry Fuseli, Cindy Sherman, Guillermo del Toro, William Blake and Gregory Crewdson.
Content
5 x 2 hour seminars debating the points/ideas raised in each lecture. In addition, individual tutorial (as specified below).
- Mystery, Mastery and the Spirit (lecture)
- Religion, the Sacred and the Gothic (follow-up seminar to Lecture 1)
- Terror, Horror and the Barbaric (lecture)
- Revolution, Holocaust and the Gothic (follow-up seminar to Lecture 2)
- Awe, Power and the Sublime (lecture)
- Nature, Landscape and the Gothic (follow-up seminar to Lecture 3)
- Disgust, Monstrosity and the Grotesque (Lecture 4)
- The Human Body, Evolution and the Gothic (follow-up seminar to Lecture 4)
- Trauma, Ruin and the Haunted (Lecture 5)
- Society, Postmodernity and the Gothic (follow-up seminar to Lecture 5)
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | N/A |
| Communication | Articulating ideas through seminar discussions and presentations, as well as academic writing skills in the essay |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Independent study through seminar assignment research and preparation |
| Information Technology | Information retrieval from various academic research portals and online museum collection databases |
| Personal Development and Career planning | Emphasis on professional presentation of research and annotated bilbiography using MLA style documentation |
| Problem solving | In seminar preparation and discussion, essay research and writing, and in the examination |
| Research skills | In seminar preparation, essay research and writing, and in the examination |
| Subject Specific Skills | N/A (module is designed to be interdisciplinary) |
| Team work | Themed group presentations within seminars |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6