Theories of the Avant-Garde (HISTART5069)

Core Course: Semester 1

This course is concerned with setting out the main theoretical definitions and arguments surrounding the notion of the ‘avant-garde’ and its offshoots (the so-called ‘neo-avant-garde’ and ‘post-avant-garde’). The historical parameters of the topic, and its relation to concepts of modernism, modernity and postmodernism will be carefully examined. You will be introduced to a variety of arguments both endorsing and problematizing the concept, and, to this end, the emphasis in the seminars will be on focused readings from key texts on the subject.

As well as engaging with the idea of the avant-garde (as well as the neo-avant-garde and post-avant-garde) students will be encouraged to think about the concept in relation to a variety of related contexts (e.g. ‘The Avant-Garde and Subculture’, ‘Rhetorics of Transgression’ or ‘Marxism and the Avant-Garde’) and will be provided with a strong grasp of the historical development of actual avant-garde movements in tandem with the theories and declarations that helped legitimate them.

Convenor: David Hopkins

Readings in Duchamp: Anti-Art, Blasphemy, Sexuality (HISTART5056)

Semester 1

'I want to grasp things with the mind the way the penis is grasped by the vagina'. [Marcel Duchamp: statement to Lawrence Steefel, 1960]

This startling assertion communicates the distinctive co-existence of conceptual rigour and moral/ social transgression that characterises Duchamp’s practice. This course is broadly committed to restoring this dimension to an account of Duchamp.

The literature on Duchamp is now very extensive and one of the central pedagogic concerns of the course will be to produce an in-depth historiographic assessment of the range and methodological variety of the existing literature on this key figure of twentieth century art. Historical contexts here range from hermeticism, popular/ commodity culture and science to specific Dada and Surrealist readings of Duchamp. Critical approaches range from the psycho-analytic and alchemical speculation of Arturo Schwarz to the post-structural readings of J-F Lyotard and Rosalind Krauss. However, as suggested above, the course will also be dedicated to a re-reading of Duchamp in line with current research trends. To this end, three key areas will be considered:

• The strategic undermining of aesthetic protocols and the concept of ‘art’
• The development of anti-Catholic and anti-religious themes and iconography
• The investigation of gender and sexuality (especially in so far as fixed gender categories and mind/body or male/ female binaries are challenged.)

While the primary emphasis of the course will be historiographic and methodological, as befits a programme of study at this level, the material will be presented in a chronological framework so that students will emerge from the course with a strong sense of the overall development, and historical contexts, of Duchamp’s practice.

Convenor: Prof David Hopkins

Dada in Switzerland and Germany (HISTART5011)

Semester 2

This course will examine the origins of Dada in Zurich during the First World War and its subsequent development in Berlin during the period of the collapse of the German empire and the November Revolution. Aspects of Dada in Cologne and Hanover will also be considered.

In the context of Germany’s extreme political and cultural crises of c. 1914-1924, the function and validity of ‘art’ in contemporary life was thrown into question. Dada can be read as a series of responses to this situation. While this course will provide a sound grounding of knowledge of this pivotal period of the history of the European avant-garde, its aim is not to make a general ‘survey’ of Dada, but rather to encourage students to engage critically with a range of the most urgent questions that propelled Dada’s development. These include, for example, the radical critique of language and conventional sign systems enacted by Dada; the ‘failure’ of Expressionism; the theoretical concept and material practice of montage as a means for political change and cultural critique; the vexed relationship of the avant-garde with the ‘culture of the proletariat’ and the relationship of Dada with emerging theories of modernity.

Case studies of works by Hugo Ball, Hans Arp, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, George Grosz, Hannah Höch, Kurt Schwitters and others will be used in close connection with detailed readings of texts by cultural critics, artists and political theorists to address the questions raised by the course. Students will also be encouraged to evaluate current and recent methodological approaches to Dada and the wider avant-garde in this period.

Convenor: Dr Debbie Lewer

Art: Embodiment: Transgression (HISTART5004)

Semester 2

The purpose of this course is to investigate the special role of the body as a focus for transgressive art practice in the twentieth century. In particular, various forms of ‘body art’ from the 1960s onwards which attack normative notions of embodiment and identity, will be addressed. In keeping with the level of intellectual attainment expected of graduate students, an emphasis will be placed on theoretical and philosophical accounts of embodied experience which illuminate such artistic practice (including psychoanalysis, phenomenology, poststructuralism). As one of the range of options offered in ‘Art, Politics and Transgression’, this course is intended to open up questions relating to the fate(s) of avant-gardist practice in the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It asks students to consider body art from the point of view of both ‘art beyond aesthetics’ (Peter Osborne) and ‘aesthetics after art’ (Susan Buck-Morss).

Convenor: Dr Dominic Paterson

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Dissertation (HISTART5018P)

Submitted at the end of August

The dissertation, or other substantial piece of work, encourages independent work through deeper study of a particular art historical, or related, problem and encourages the application of acquired research skills. It is expected that MLitt dissertations should make a contribution to some aspect of the subject. The dissertation is 15-20,000 words in length (including footnotes and bibliography) and will be on a topic chosen in consultation with the tutors and the programme director during Semester 1.