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Spring 2011
Apr 29,2024
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Information Select the desired Level or Schedule Type to find available classes for the course.

AMER 311 - AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY, AMERICAN VISUAL CULTURE
Photography has become a central means to convey information and attempt to influence people since its invention in 1839. Photography is a subset of visual culture, the interdisciplinary study of images and objects, their formation and historical and theoretical contexts. Images have come to dominate our lives. Learning different approaches to their interpretation and examining their use in American culture will be our objective. This is an American Studies course, and thus interdisciplinary in nature. The course combines history, art history, literature, and culture studies to develop an in-depth understanding of how photographic and other visual images can be "read" and how they are used to a multiplicity of purposes. We will examine "the cultural work that images do" (Davidov) and how images create visual paradigms in American culture and, indeed, have "written" America's history and identity (but often as fiction). Issues of race, class and gender in visual culture will shape our readings, class discussions, and assignments, and we will range among popular, elite and academic culture. In addition to using slides and the images from our texts, we will visit virtual museums and other virtual resources to access images.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Lecture

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Amer Regionalism, MJ-AMER-Amer Artistic Express, OLD GE-TOPICS ARTS&HUMANATIES

Restrictions:
Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels:     
      Undergraduate

Prerequisites:
English

General Requirements:
Course or Test: ENGL 180
Minimum Grade of D
May not be taken concurrently.

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