This course (taught by Distinguished Writer in Residence, Namwali Serpell) concerns one strand of the interrelation between the visual and the verbal. We will look at a range of works of art, photography, film, television, and comics. And we will read works of prose fiction and nonfiction interested in those visual forms, including ekphrastic poems and prose, art criticism, film and TV reviews, and so on. Our aims will be to study foundational and experimental works of writing about visual forms; to gain a working vocabulary of key terms and ideas for analyzing visual media; to consider the historical and cultural differences between various theories of visuality and textuality; to discuss the aesthetic, affective, and political dimensions of writing about other media; and to practice writing in this mode. |