Postgraduate Course: History of Photography in Ireland (PGHC11395)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course provides an introduction to the advanced study of photography in Ireland.
Each session will address a particular theme, problem, or interpretive issue in the history of photography, which will be discussed with reference to specialist texts and images drawn from online archives and databases.
|
| Course description |
From the invention of photography in the 1830s to the present day, the medium has provided artists, journalists and amateurs with the ability to document the world around them in new ways. During this time, the uses and technologies of photography have changed considerably. Studio portraits and Kodak 'snaps' have inscribed photography as a crucial part of designating and solidifying familial relationships. Photography has also had an importance in the public sphere as a way of documenting social problems including housing shortages, rural poverty, and emigration. During the upheavals of the Northern Ireland Troubles, photographers recorded scenes of violence in order to challenge RUC brutality, while amateurs also formed photography collectives in order to fashion alternative visual representations of the province. Photography has also played a role in post-conflict (and post-Celtic Tiger) Ireland, through the interrogation of older identities and certainties.
While representations of Ireland have often been characterized as a product of Ireland's colonial relationship to Britain, an examination of the history of photography complicates this story, situating images within the context of their production, reception, and dissemination. Furthermore, a turn towards photography provides us with a new approach to Irish history, allowing us to consider questions of state power, self-expression, and commerce in Ireland.
The history of photography also raises important questions regarding our approach to the past. Should photography be seen as a social practice? A form of representation? Or should photographs be read as objects that move through networks of exchange? How have practitioners and historians understood the veracity of photographic representation?
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
| Course Start Date |
11/01/2016 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
One 1000 word criticism of a photograph (20%), and one 3,000 word essay (80%). These pieces will be submitted via Learn and marked using TurnitIn. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of some of the most important photographers and photographic movements in Britain and Ireland since the nineteenth century
- Independently identify and pursue research topics using photographs as sources
- Exhibit an understanding for different conceptual approaches for the study of photographic history
- Analyse and contextualise primary source material
- Arrive at independent, well-argued, well-documented and properly referenced conclusions in their coursework essay
|
Reading List
Justin Carville, Photography and Ireland (London, 2011)
E. Flannery et al. (ed.) Ireland in Focus: Film, Photography, and Popular Culture (Syracuse, 2009)
Ciara Breathnach (ed.), Framing the West: Images of Rural Ireland 1891-1920 (Dublin, 2007)
Barthes, Roland, Camera Lucida (1980; English trans. London, 1993)
Bourdieu, Pierre, Photography: A Middlebrow Art (London, 1996)
Cullen, Fintan, 'Marketing National Sentiment: Lantern Slides of Evictions in Late Nineteenth century Ireland' History Workshop Journal (2002)
Edge, Sarah, 'Photographic History and the Visual Appearance of an Irish Nationalist Discourse', Victorian Literature and Culture (2004)
Rose, Gillian, 'Practising photography: an archive, a study, some photographs and a researcher' Journal of Historical Geography (2000)
Rose, Gillian, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials (London, 2001)
Sontag, Susan, On Photography (London, 1979)
Taylor, John, War Photography: Realism in the British Press (London, 1991)
Tinkler, Penny, Using Photographs in Social and Historical Research (Manchester, 2013) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The study of the past gives students a unique understanding of the past that will enable them to succeed in a broad range of careers. The transferable skills gained from this course include:
- understanding of complex issues and how to draw valid conclusions from the past
- ability to analyse the origins and development of current political questions
- a command of bibliographical and library- and/or IT-based online and offline research skills
- a range of skills in reading and textual analysis
- ability to question and problematize evidence; considering the relationship between evidence and interpretation
- understanding ethical dimensions of research and their relevance for human relationships today
- ability to marshal arguments lucidly, coherently and concisely, both orally and in writing
- ability to deliver a paper or a presentation in front of peer audiences
- ability to design and execute pieces of written work and to present them suitably, as evidenced by the final assessment essay of 3,000 words |
| Keywords | History Photography Ireland |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Erika Hanna
Tel: (0131 6)51 5215
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Lindsay Scott
Tel: (0131 6)50 9948
Email: |
|
© Copyright 2015 The University of Edinburgh - 27 July 2015 11:47 am
|
University Homepage