Course detail

Theory and Art in the 20th Century 2 - winter

FaVU-TU-ZAcad. year: 2020/2021

The course will introduce students to key terminology and approaches of contemporary art theory and criticism. During the course, students will learn about the dominant methodological approaches to art theory of the 20th century (marxisma and post-marxism, psychoanalysis, phenomenology and hermeneutics, analytic philosophy, structuralism and post-structuralism, feminism, and post-modernism. Each of the aforementioned theoretical approach will be introduced though the elucidation of its basic concepts and key figures and afterwords will be applied to modern and contemporary art. The course graduate should be able to understand the "jargon" of contemporary critical and theoretical text and should be able to identify them with the corresponding philosophical school.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

4

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

doc. Mgr. Václav Magid

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Learning outcomes of the course unit

The graduates of the class should be capable of reading and reflecting texts of actual art criticism and art theory so that they could place them in the relevant methodological streem in the theory of the 20th century. This orientation should empower them to understand thinking about art in its wider philosophical, social and political frameworks.

Prerequisites

Knowledge of the history of art and of the general history of 19th - 20th centuries, experience with reading recent art criticism and art theory, graduation of the antecedent class Theory and Art in the 20th Century I.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The classwork is based on the combination of lectures, aimed at the general introducing of a topic, with collective reading of short theoretical texts.

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

Oral exam.

Course curriculum

1. Phenomenology, fundamental onthology and hermeneutics (Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer)
2. Existentialism
3. Structuralism. Its basic concepts and methods. From Saussure to Levi-Strauss.
4. Western marxism. Frankfurt school of critical theory. Althusser.
5. Analytical philosophy. Frege, Wittgenstein, Austin
6. Poststructuralism in pschoanalysis and in the theory of literature. Lacan, Barthes
7. Foucault
8. Deleuze and Guattari, Derrida, Baudrillard
9. Pheminism in theory. From Simone de Beauvoir to Judith Butler
10. Postmodernism. Lyotard. Postmodernism in the theory of architecture (Jencks, Venturi) and in the art criticism (October).
11. Postmarxism and critique of postmodernism. Jameson, Laclau, Mouffe, Ranciere, Žižek, Badiou.

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

The goal of the course lies in helping students to become qualified readers of contemporary theory (of art).

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

Lectures are optional.

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Hal FOSTER – Rosalind KRAUSSOVÁ – Yve-Alain BOIS – Benjamin H. D. BUCHLOH, Umění po roce 1900. Modernismus, antimodernismus, postmodernismus, Praha: Slovart 2007
Konrad Paul LIESSMANN, Filozofie moderního umění, Olomouc: Votobia 2000
Miroslav PETŘÍČEK, Úvod do současné filosofie, Praha: Herrmann & synové 1997

Recommended reading

Jean-François LYOTARD, O postmodernismu (Postmoderno vysvětlované dětem, Postmoderní situace), Praha: Filosofický ústav AV ČR 1993
Josef FULKA, Psychoanalýza a francouzské myšlení, Praha: Herrmann & synové 2008
Ladislav KESNER, Vizuální teorie. Současné anglo-americké myšlení o výtvarných dílech¸ Jinočany: H&H 2005.
Manfred FRANK, Co je neostrukturalismus?, Praha: Sofis 2000
Terrence HAWKES, Strukturalismus a sémiotika, Brno: Host 1999
Tomáš POSPISZYL, Před obrazem. Antologie americké výtvarné teorie a kritiky, Praha: OSVU 1998
Wolfgang JANKE, Filosofie existence, Praha: Mladá fronta 1995
Wolfgang WELSCH, Naše postmoderní moderna, Praha: Zvon 1994

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme VUM Master's

    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

doc. Mgr. Václav Magid