Undergraduate Course: From Jacobitism to Romanticism: The (Re)invention of Scotland in Visual and Material Culture (HIAR10009)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | In recent years, literary historians and to a lesser extent, art historians, have written of(f) aspects of Scottish culture as part of a 'myth' fabricated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Perhaps most controversially for Scots, part of their national dress - the tartan kilt - has been (mis)understood as an English invention of the late eighteenth century. This course aims to get to grips with the peculiarities and particularities of these so-called 'romantic' myths of Scotland as they were (re)invented in visual and material form. It will go beyond the theoretical framework of Roland Barthes' Mythologies to reinstate their antiquity and also their much-neglected basis in reality. We will examine a number of paintings by distinguished alumni of the Scottish School, including works by Raeburn and Wilkie. But the course privileges a thematic approach to these Scottish artists and their painted output rather than a biographical one. Our timeframe will be hinged on key historical events in Scotland's history: from the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite rebellions, to the visit of George 4th to Edinburgh in 1822 and on into the later nineteenth century when the 'land of cakes and whisky', the 'region of mist and snow' became the favoured retreat of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The visual and material culture generated in response to these historical events will be extended into that surrounding the literary phenomena that was the publication and illustration of Sir Walter Scott's poems and novels. Scott's many representations - in portraits, marble busts and sculptures and his monument in Princes Street - will be studied as part of the transformation of Scotland into 'Scott-land'. Key themes for this course include the relationship between Highland and Lowland culture as well as that between art history and material culture. Visits will be arranged to Sir Walter Scott's house, Abbotsford in the Borders. |
| Course description |
Not entered
|
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 16 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Revision Session Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
173 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
50 %,
Coursework
50 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
1 two-hour examination paper (50%) and 1 extended essay of 2,500 words(50%) |
| Feedback |
All students will participate in a compulsory feed-forward session towards the middle of the semester. The precise content of the exercise will be determined in advance.
At the end of the semester all students will have their essays returned with written feedback. They will be invited to a one-on-one meeting with the course tutor which will be timetabled after the last class.
|
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | From Jacobitism to Romanticism: The (Re)invention of Scotland in Visual and Material Culture | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Have detailed knowledge of two hundred years of visual and material culture in Scotland.
- Have tackled an ambitious secondary bibliography by academics from the discipline of art history and from other academic fields (e.g. literary history).
- Engage with a range of materials - all manner of objects, paintings, interiors and monuments.
- Use this accumulated knowledge to think critically and inventively about demolishing some of the cultural myths that surround Scotland. As such, they will have engaged with the conventional tools of the art historian, but in such a manner that encourages them to exploit critical theory, such as Barthes.
- Deconstruct notions of romanticism which could be said to plague the entire legacy of art history.
|
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Viccy Coltman
Tel: (0131 6)50 8426
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Sue Cavanagh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1460
Email: |
|
© Copyright 2017 The University of Edinburgh - 6 February 2017 7:55 pm
|
University Homepage