Syllabus
**While this syllabus constitutes a generally accurate breakdown of the course and the material we will cover, it is also subject to change as per the needs of students and our progress.**
SCHEDULE
Week 1 - What is a Photographic Image?
Image Producers — Egene Atget, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Sudek
Reading: Susan Sontag, “On Photography”
Week 2 - Early Photography
Image Producers — Friedrich Franz, Ludwig and Viktor Angerer, Baron Raimund von Stillfried-Rathenitz, et al.
Reading: Walter Benjamin, “The Art Object in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, Arcade Project (selections)
Week 3 - Photographic Images in Movement : Cinema’s Predecessors
Image Producers — Eadweard Muybridge, Zoetropic producers, Ottomar Anschütz
Reading: Richard J. Leskosky, “Phenakiscope: 19th Century Science Turned to Animation”
Week 4 - Ethnicity and Ethnography- Ethnographic Images
Image Producers- Martin Martinček/Dušan Hanák, Pavol Socháň, Czechoslavic Ethnic Exhibition of 1905
Reading: Jean Baudrillard, Simulation and Simulacra
Week 5 - The Lives of Objects : Surrealism in Film and Photography pt. I
Image Producers - Josef Sudek, Jindřích Štyrský, Jan Švankmajer
Reading: Andre Breton, “The Surrealist Manifesto”
Midterm 1 Due
Week 6 - Abstract Photographs and Concrete Desires
Image Producers - László Moholy-Nagy, Jaroslav Rössler, Karel Teige
Reading: Karel Teige Poetism Manifesto
Week 7 - Avant-Garde Film : A Collection of Photographic Images
Image Producers—Jaroslav Kučera/Věra Chytilová, Tarr Bela, Fabri Zoltan
Reading: W.J.T. Mitchell, Picture Theory (excerpts)
Week 8 - Postcards, and the Photographic Image as Mementos
Image Producers : Emanuel Alexander Herrmann, Pavol Socháň
Reading: Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida : Reflections on Photography (excerpts)
Week 9 - Got Something to Sell You : Advertising, Fashion and the Photographic Image
Image Producers — Herbert Bayer, Baťa Film, Ernst Haas
Reading: Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle (excerpts)
Week 10 - Street Photography and Photojournalism: Capturing the Moment
Image Producers — Ladislav Bielik, Zoltán Glass
Reading : Henri Cartier-Bresson The Decisive Moment
Midterm 2 Due
Week 11 - “Do přírody!” Nature Photography and Cultural Memory
Image Producers — Karel Plicka, Irena Blühová, Early Hungarian Cinema
Reading : Rosalind Krauss - Voyage to the North Sea (excerpts)
Week 12 - City Symphonies, Travelogues, and the Cinema of Attractions
Image Producers — Brassaï (aka Gyula Halász), Robert Capa, Walther Ruttmann
Reading: Ivan Chtcheglov, “Formulary for a New Urbanism”
Week 13 The Photographic Image in Contemporary Life
Image Producers — Contemporary Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Austrian Photography
Reading: Fred Ritchin “After Photography” (excerpts)
Final Due
Annotation
Course Description: Since the mid-19th century photograph and its sibling, the motion picture, have been hugely instrumental in defining cultural identity and preserving cultural memories. This course focuses on the photographic image and cinema, which are key components in visual culture, especially within the area of our focus: Central Europe.
Class Structure: This particular course will be taught in English (both in lecture and discussion) to facilitate discussion. However students are welcome to complete their written work in English, Czech, Slovak, or German, if they feel more proficient in any of those languages. Some of the theoretical texts will also be available in Czech translation. Class will consist of an introductory lecture covering the relevant images, image producers, and theory that we will be covering, followed by class discussion. Although this is a media studies course, students with no experience in photography or cinema are welcome.