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FR3113 Text and Image in France: from Cubism to the Present
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FR3113 Text and Image in France: from Cubism to the Present
2018-9: Terms 1 and 2
Convenor: Professor Eric Robertson
Assessment: formative written piece; essay 1 (30%); essay 2 (70%)
Deadlines: as published on Moodle
Overview:
Since the early 1900s, France has witnessed countless revolutions in the visual arts and literature, with collaborations and crossovers bringing the most important artists and writers together. In this course we analyse some of the most significant developments in textual and visual media, such as the experimental art and poetry of Cubism and Orphism, the subversive textual/visual practices of Dada and Surrealism, the relationship between writing, drawing and painting in post-war practices of Gestural Abstraction and Art Informel, the interplay of photography, projection and painting in New Figuration, and theories of the ‘language’ of photography. The interaction of different art forms makes us think anew about each of them, and prompts us to reconsider the artistic as well as socio-cultural context in which they were produced. Examining an array of innovative practices, we shall consider how they reflected the concerns of their time and shaped a century of experimentation.
Key Primary Bibliography
Set Texts:
Apollinaire, Guillaume, Calligrammes : poèmes de la paix et de la guerre (Paris: Gallimard, Poésie)
Barthes, Roland, La Chambre claire : note sur la photographie (Paris: Gallimard)
Breton, André, Manifestes du surréalisme (Paris: Gallimard, Folio)
Cendrars, Blaise, Du monde entier : poésies complètes 1912-1924 (Paris: Gallimard, Poésie)
Deleuze, Gilles and Michel Foucault, Gérard Fromanger: la peinture photogénique (London : Black Dog, ‘Revisions’ series)
Michaux, Henri, ‘Mouvements’, in Face aux verrous (Paris: Gallimard)
English translations for CLC/ TV & Film students
Apollinaire, Guillaume, Calligrammes: poems of peace and war, trans. Iain Lockerbie (Berkeley & London: University of California Press, 1980). 848 APO
Barthes, Roland, Camera lucida : reflections on photography, trans. Richard Howard (London: Vintage, 1993) 848 BAR
Breton, André, Manifestoes of surrealism, trans. Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane (University of Michigan Press, 1972) 848.915 BRE
Cendrars, Blaise, Complete Poems, trans. Ron Padgett (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
Deleuze, Gilles and Michel Foucault, Gérard Fromanger: la peinture photogénique (London : Black Dog, ‘Revisions’ series. Parallel French – English edition). 709.04092 FRO/D
Michaux, Henri, Mouvements/ Movements, translated by Bernard Bador and Clayton Eshleman, in Cerise Press, Vol. 2, no. 6 (2011). http://www.cerisepress.com/02/06/movements