What Are We Looking At? Paradoxes of the Visual. (GRMN1441P)

Course Description

In Western cultures in particular, the visual sense has traditionally received preferential treatment, having been associated most closely with knowledge and understanding. The word ‘theory’ itself (via its ancient Greek origin: theoria) makes reference to ‘seeing’ (as does the word ‘theater’). Similarly, when we speak of ‘evidence,’ the implication is that we are seeing something clearly, that something is ‘in plain view,’ and therefore free of doubt. Especially at academic institutions, we want ‘overview’ and ‘insight,’ to ‘look at’ something ‘very closely,’ and examine it through various ‘lenses’ (such as theoretical frameworks). On the other hand, there is also the obverse, where the optical stands for superficiality, mere appearance, and even deceptions and confusion. In other words, when we take a closer look at ‘seeing,’ things appear more complicated than they did at first glance.

In this course, we will be reading a wide range of texts, both literary and theoretical ones, with many being key texts from the fields of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the theory of art. We are also going to look at some specific works of art. The focus of our discussions will be to explore the paradoxes, pitfalls, and complications arising from attempts to rely on our eyes: from ‘seeing too much,’ to the question of ‘blindness,’ to the changes in our perception caused by our encounters with paintings, photography, and film. We will also keep an eye on what happens when literature and the visual arts meet, and when we try to translate from one into the other.

Starting off with two fundamental pieces of ancient Greek literature, Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Sophocles' Oedipus the King, we are then going to read texts by German authors, such as Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Goethe, and Kleist, but also non-German ones, such as Oscar Wilde, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Toni Morrison. We will also read art and literary theory by Johann Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Michel Foucault, and Paul de Man. In addition, we will be looking at some drawings by Paul Klee and read a series of poems by Tuvia Ruebner. Taught in English, with no knowledge of German required (but certainly useful).