CO4021 Autobiography and the Visual Arts

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Module description

In recent decades, life-writing has taken a decidedly visual turn. The incorporation of visual arts (painting, photography and cinema) in autobiographical texts and films raises and redefines issues central to the genre: (how) can the self can be 'narrated'? What role do images play in the process of self-reflection? Other aspects discussed in this module will include the use of painting, photography, and cinema as metaphors of life writing; the merging of the public and private spheres in art; the creation of hybrid texts and art works and the question of innovation; the gendered aspects of these visual modes of writing the self. Texts studied may include travel diaries of painters; autobiographical films; hybrid autobiographical texts incorporating illustrations; autobiographical texts by women artists; texts reflecting on theory and practice of 'photo-biography'; artistic projects framing the self as art work. The module will focus primarily on works from the end of the nineteenth century until the present and will include collaboration with the School of Art History.