ENGL 759K:

Word and Image

Spring 2002

Readings

Primary Texts:

All of these should be available for purchase at the University Book Store and at the Maryland Book Exchange. You may, of course, obtain them from other sources, including online vendors. There’s also a required coursepacket, from Beljean, available at the Maryland Book Exchange ($45.21).

Danielewski, Mark. House of Leaves. New York: Pantheon, 2000.

Drucker, Johanna. Figuring the Word: Essays on Books, Language, and Visual Culture. New York: Granary Books, 1998.

Elkins, James. The Domain of Images. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999.

Goodman, Nelson. Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 1976.

Helfand, Jessica. Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim. Laoccoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry. Trans. Edward Allen McCormick. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962.

McGann, Jerome J. Black Riders: The Visible Language of Modernism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Mitchell, W. J. T. Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Schedule:

1.31

• David C. Lindberg, "Johannes Kepler and the Theory of the Retinal Image." Theories of Vision. Coursepack.

2.7

• William J. Mitchell, "What is an Image?" Iconology.
• James Elkins, “Allographs.” The Domain of Images.
• Roland Barthes, “Rhetoric of the Image.” Coursepack.
• Jerome McGann, “Introduction.” Black Riders.
• Johanna Drucker, “The Material Word.” Figuring the Word.

2.14

• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Laocoon. Preface, Chapters 1-5, 10-19.
• Mitchell, “Lessing’s Laocoon and the Politics of Genre.” Iconology.

2.21

• Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art. Sections III, IV, VI.
• Mitchell, “Nelson Goodman and the Grammar of Difference.” Iconology. OR:
• Elkins, “Pictures as Ruined Notations.” The Domain of Images.

Friday, 2. 22: Special Lecture

• Joseph Viscomi, “Blake’s Enlightened Graphics: Illuminated Books and New Technologies.” Susquehanna 1117, 2:00-4:00. Dinner to follow.

2.28

• Selections to be announced from the William Blake Archive <http://www.blakearchive.org>.

• Joseph Viscomi, “Illuminated Printing.” To be distributed.
• Morris Eaves, “Graphicality.” To be distributed.
• Mitchell, “Visible Language: Blake’s Art of Writing.” Coursepack.

3.7

· No class. MGK out of town.

3.14

• William M. Ivins, Jr, Prints and Visual Communication. Chapters 1, 4, 5, 7, 8. Coursepack.

• Andre Bazin, “Ontology of the Photographic Image.” Coursepack.

3.21

• E. H. Gombrich, “Image and Code.” Coursepack.
• Mitchell, “Gombrich’s Illusions.” Iconology.
• Elkins, “Psuedowriting” The Domain of Images.
• Drucker, “Art of the Written Image.” Figuring the Word.

3.28

• No class. Spring Break.

4.4

• Mark Danielewski, House of Leaves. To page 245.
• Drucker, “Linguistic Authority and the Visual Text.” Figuring the Word.

4.11

• McGann, “The Materialist Aesthetic of William Morris.” Black Riders.
• McGann, “Postmodern Poetics.” Black Riders.
• Drucker, “Experimental/Visual/Concrete.” Figuring the Word.
• Drucker, “Letterpress Language.” Figuring the Word.

4.18

• Elkins, “Emblemata.”
• Susan Stewart, “Graffiti as Crime and Art.” Crimes of Writing. Coursepack.
• Julian Stallabrass, “Advertising the Invisible.” Gargantua. Coursepack.
• Drucker, “Language in the Landscape.” Figuring the Word.
• Marjorie Perloff, “Signs Taken for Wonders.” Radical Artifice. Coursepack.

4.25

• Elkins, “Schemata.”

• Jessica Helfand, Screen. Sections on “Aesthetics,” “Media,” “Typography,” and “Epilogue.”

5.3

• Drucker, “Language as Information: Intimations of Immateriality.” Figuring the Word.
• Kim H. Veltman, “The Rebirth of Perspective and the Fragmentation of Illusion.” Electronic Culture. Coursepack.
• Lev Manovich, “From Photography to Computer Vision.” Electronic Culture. Coursepack.
• “Computer Monitors and Graphic Systems.” To be distributed.

5.10

• “The Dreamlife of Letters” <http://www.ubu.com/contemp/stefans/dream/>.
• UbuWeb <http://www.ubu.com>.
• Jim Andrews, VisPo <http://www.vispo.com/>.
• Light and Dust <http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/lighthom.htm>.
• Matthew Kirschenbaum, Lucid Mapping and Codex Transformissions in the Z-Buffer <http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/~mgk3k/lucid/>.
• Jodi <http://www.jodi.org> and Jodi 404 <http://www.jodi.org/404/>..
• Conclave Obscurum <http://cmart.design.ru/>.
• Rhizome.org [especially the ArtBase] <http://www.rhizome.org>.
• PAPERS DUE.

Final Class (to be scheduled)

• Matthew Kirschenbaum and Kari Kraus, “Outside the Archive.” To be distributed.