Art History: Art: Politics: Transgression: 20th Century Avant-Gardes [MLitt]

Closely focused on the visual and historical specificities of the subject, the core teaching will have you examining the politically oppositional and ‘transgressive’ impulses of the avant-garde.

You will interpret ‘transgression’ in the widest sense and in relation to a range of diverse historical contexts, including: the anti-art concerns of Dada; the political tensions arising from conflicts between nationalist and internationalist currents in European art of the early 20th century and the Nietzschian/Bataillean testing of the boundaries of conventional moral positions, particularly regarding sexual identity and the body.

The optional courses available are closely geared to the research interests of our staff. Their content will draw upon current exhibitions and debates.

You will take five core courses and one optional course. This is followed by a period of self-study towards a dissertation 15,000 words in length (including footnotes but excluding bibliography) and will be on a topic chosen in consultation with the tutors and the programme convenor.

• Research methods in practice
• Theories of the Avant Garde
• Readings in Duchamp: anti-art, blasphemy, sexuality
• Art, embodiment, transgression
• Dada in Switzerland and Germany.

You may choose from the following options in the College of Arts

• a Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) course: 2D Digitisation (Theory and Practice)
• a course from the MLitt Modernities: Modernism, Modernity & Post-Modernity run by English Literature
• a course from elsewhere in the College of Arts, subject to the approval of the programme convenor.

Or from courses run by History of Art

• Art in the making: modern and Avant-Garde techniques
• Independent study
• Work placement.