Hong Kong Shue Yan University
Department of English Language & Literature
Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies
Course Title
: Literature and Visual Culture
Course Code
: ENG 510
Number of Credits
:3
Duration in Weeks
: 14
Contact Hours per Week
: Lecture (2 hours)
: Tutorial (1 hour)
Prepared by
: Dr. Stephen WENINGER
Course Description:
Literature has had an ambivalent relationship to the visual arts. This course explores
how the verbal arts and the visual arts inform one another and challenge the
reading/viewing experience. Students are introduced to some key theoretical debates
about visual culture and literary writing, and have the opportunity to engage with a
diverse range of texts drawn from many genres (poetry, fiction, essays, painting,
photography, comic books, and to a lesser extent, film). Topics covered include
ekphrasis, textual illustration, the case of poet-painters, what has been termed “word
painting” and the cinematic adaptation of literary texts. Special emphasis is placed on
the resurgent and fluid genre of comic books (or graphic novels), texts traditionally
regarded as juvenile or lowbrow. Students are thus encouraged to reflect on the ways
such texts go beyond youthful subcultures and handle topical matters such as personal
development, ethnic identity, social power, or trauma.
Course Outcomes, Teaching Activities and Assessment
Course Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
Upon completion of this course students should be able to:
analyze images and illustrations as well as narratives that accompany
ILO1
them
relate to diverse literary texts that engage the visual arts, and images
ILO2
that engage the verbal arts
describe the historical, social and aesthetic contexts of the texts
ILO3
2
ILO4
ILO5
ILO6
ILO7
examined in the course
display an advanced knowledge of the key role of visual culture in the
study of narrative in writing response papers
employ relevant theoretical terminology in the interpretation of
narratives and images
design and deliver effective oral presentations on the juxtaposition of
verbal and visual arts
research and compose written work that displays critical thought,
creativity and intellectual independence
Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs)
TLA1
critical reading and analysis of narrative and visual texts
TLA2
explanation of theoretical and aesthetic issues
TLA3
seminar discussion
TLA4
oral presentations on the assigned texts
TLA5
projection of images and screening of videos and film
TLA6
response papers
TLA7
term paper
Assessment Tasks (ATs)
AT1
Participation and discussion
10%
Students are to prepare discussion questions uploaded before class
meetings and respond actively to specific points made by the lecturer as
well as take part in class conversation.
AT2
Seminar presentation
20%
Students individually present a summary of term paper thesis, analysis,
support, and working bibliography for discussion, critique and
evaluation.
AT3
Response papers (2)
30%
These brief assignments not only demonstrate an understanding of an
assigned text but also examine authorial assumptions and evidence,
evaluate strengths and weaknesses, and raise possible counterarguments.
AT4
Term paper
40%
This culminating assignment allows students the opportunity to analyse in
depth a specific interaction of image and text and demonstrate a solid
grasp of the concepts and debates raised in the course.
TOTAL
100%
3
Alignment of Course Intended Learning Outcomes, Teaching and Learning
Activities and Assessment Tasks
Course Intended
Learning Outcomes
Teaching and Learning
Activities
Assessment Tasks
ILO1
TLA1,2,3,5
AT1,3,4
ILO2
TLA1,2,3,6,7
AT1,2,3,4
ILO3
TLA1,2,3
AT1,2,3,4
ILO4
TLA1,2,3
AT2,3,4
ILO5
TLA1,2,3
AT2,3,4
ILO6
TLA4
AT1,2
ILO7
TLA1,2,6,7
AT3,4
Course Outline:
Week 1
Theorizing Visual Culture and Interart
Walker, John and Sarah Chaplin. “Visual Literacy and Visual Poetics.”
In Visual Culture. An Introduction. Manchester: Manchester UP,
1997: 111-127.
Week 2
Textualizing the Visual: Ekphrasis
Cheeke, Stephen. “Ekphrasis”. In Writing for Art. The Aesthetics of
Ekphrasis. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2011: 11-41.
Auden, W. H. “In the Musée des Beaux Arts”
Ashbery, John.
“Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”
Landow, George. “Ruskin’s Allegorical Interpretations of Turner” 10
March 2012 <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/
ruskin/atheories/5.6.html#python>
Week 3
Textual Illustration; Poet-painters
The Pre-Raphaelites and Julia Cameron on Tennyson
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. “The Lady of Shallot”
Aubrey Beardsley on Oscar Wilde
Premorac, Yelena. “Illustrating Wilde: An Examination of
Aubrey Beardsley’s Interpretation of Wilde’s Salome.” 27 April
2009 <http:// www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/ beardsley/
primorac.html>
William Blake and Dante Rossetti (selected poems and pictures TBA)
4
Week 4
Art as the Subject of Literature (ut pictura poesis)
Pater, Walter. “Leonardo da Vinci.” In The Renaissance. Studies in Art
and Poetry. Berkeley: U of California P, 1980. 77-101.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Norton, 2006.
Week 5
Literature and Photography
Moore, Marianne. “Blue Bug”
Mishima, Yukio. Preface to Barakei [Ordeal by Roses] by Eikoh
Hosoe. In Rabb Literature and Photography. 436-440.
Michals, Duane. “Things are Queer” in Rabb Literature and
Photography 481-483.
Tournier, Michel. “Veronica’s Shrouds.” In Ed. Jane M. Rabb. The
Short Story and Photography. 1880’s—1980’s. A Critical
Anthology. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1998. 234-247.
Updike, John. “All in the Family.” In Rabb Literature and
Photography 521-529.
Week 6
Literature, Film and Adaptation (China, cliché and Orientalism)
Ray, Robert. “The Field of ‘Literature and Film’” in Film Adaptation.
Ed. James Naremore. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2000: 38-53.
Nochlin, Linda. “The Imaginary Orient.” In Eds. Vanessa Schwartz
and Jeannene M. Przyblyski. The Nineteenth-Century Visual
Culture Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004: 287-298.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Preface to D’Une Chine à l’Autre by Henri
Cartier-Bresson. In Rabb Literature and Photography. 384-387.
Primary texts: Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932); The
World of Suzie Wong (1960, Richard Quine; excerpts)
Week 7
Modernism: The Collage Novel & Concrete Poetry
Post-modernism: Pastiche & Parody
Ernst, Max. Une Semaine de Bonté. A Surrealist Novel in Collage.
New York: Dover: 1976.
Ballard, J. G. The Atrocity Exhibition. New York: Re/Search, 1990.
Week 8
The Graphic Novel (background; realism and fantasy)
Eisner, Will. A Contract with God Trilogy. New York: Norton, 2005.
5
Week 9
The Graphic Novel (history and trauma)
Spiegelman, Art. The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. London:
Penguin, 2003.
Week 10
The Graphic Novel (hero and anti-hero)
Moore, Allan. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1986.
Week 11 Student Seminar Presentations & Discussion
Week 12 Student Seminar Presentations & Discussion
Term paper consultations
Week 13 Student Seminar Presentations & Discussion
Term paper consultations
Week 14
Recapitulation and Review
Academic Honesty
You are expected to do your own work. Dishonesty in fulfilling any assignment
undermines the learning process and the integrity of your college degree. Engaging in
dishonest or unethical behavior is forbidden and will result in disciplinary action,
specifically a failing grade on the assignment with no opportunity for resubmission.
A second infraction will result in an F for the course and a report to College officials.
Examples of prohibited behavior are:

Cheating – an act of deception by which a student misleadingly demonstrates
that s/he has mastered information on an academic exercise.
Examples include:


Copying or allowing another to copy a test, quiz, paper, or project
Submitting a paper or major portions of a paper that has been previously
submitted for another class without permission of the current instructor

Turning in written assignments that are not your own work (including
homework)

Plagiarism – the act of representing the work of another as one’s own without
giving credit.



Failing to give credit for ideas and material taken from others
Representing another’s artistic or scholarly work as one’s own
Fabrication – the intentional use of invented information or the falsification of
research or other findings with the intent to deceive
To comply with the University’s policy, the term essay and response paper must
be submitted to VeriGuide.
Resources
6
Primary Texts
Eisner, Will. (2005) A Contract with God Trilogy. New York: W. W. Norton.
Moore, Allan. (1986) Watchmen. New York: DC Comics.
Spiegelman, Art. (2003) The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. London: Penguin.
Wilde, Oscar. (2006) The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: W. W. Norton.
Some e-text links and some texts uploaded to ILN as PDF files.
Supplementary Texts
Cartmell, Deborah and Imelda Whelehan. (2010) Screen Adaptation. Impure Cinema.
New York: Palgrave.
---, et al. eds. (2000) Classics in Film and Fiction. London: Pluto.
Derrida, Jacques. (1987) Truth in Painting. Trans. Geoffrey Bennington. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Duncan, Randy and Matthew J. Smith. (2009) The Power of Comics: History, Form
and Culture. New York: Continuum.
Eisner, Will. (1990) Comics and Sequential Art. New York: W. W. Norton.
Flaxman, Rhoda. (1987) Victorian Word Painting and Narrative. Toward the Blending
of Genre. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Howells, Richard and Joaquim Negreiros. (2012) Visual Culture. Cambridge: Polity.
Levy, Ellen.(2011) Criminal Ingenuity. Moore, Cornell, Ashbery, and the Struggle
Between the Arts. New York: Oxford University Press.
Louie, Kam. Hong Kong Culture. Word and Image. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press.
Miller, Hillis M. (1994) Illustration. Essays in Art and Culture. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Mirzoeff, Nicholas. ed. (2009) An Introduction to Visual Culture. New York:
Routledge.
---, ed. (2012) The Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge.
Mitchell, W. J. T. (1995) Picture Theory. Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Rabb, Jane M. ed. (1995) Literature and Photography. Interactions 1840-1990.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.