Visual Culture Of Politics

Instructor:
Sophia Maxine Abrams Farmer
360
Credits:
3.0
001
Building:
Fine Arts Bldg
Room:
Rm.208
Semester:
Spring 2025
Start Date:
End Date:
Name:
Visual Culture Of Politics
Class Type:
LEC
11:00 am
12:15 pm
Days:
TR
Note:
Registration for A-H 360 is restricted to SA/VS Majors through December 1, 2024. Opens to all SA/VS Minors on December 2. Registration opens to all UK students on December 9, 2024. This course looks at the visual culture of fascism, broadly conceived to include art, architecture, design, film, fashion, advertising, and public arts. Beginning with the origins of fascism in interwar Europe, we will discuss a variety of artists and movements working in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The course will then cover the proliferation of arts under fascism in a variety of contexts including Francoist Spain, Vichy France, Showa Japan, and several fascist-inspired dictatorships within Latin America. We will conclude with the legacies of these regimes found in the visual culture of today's neo-fascist movements both in the United States and globally. A particular focus will be on the role art plays in forming and securing power in the fascist state and, conversely, how arts activism can be used to disrupt totalitarian governments.

The course examines specific instances of visual political discourse across a range of historic periods, cultural contexts, political positions, and media. Although a significant portion of the historic part of the course focuses on works of art and architecture, the course also examines popular print culture and political use of mass media from film to television and internet. Some of the themes covered in the course are: symbols and symbolism of political power, imagery of specific political values, emotional appeal, political propaganda, politics of gender and race, and visual strategies of political opposition and resistance.

The course examines specific instances of visual political discourse across a range of historic periods, cultural contexts, political positions, and media. Although a significant portion of the historic part of the course focuses on works of art and architecture, the course also examines popular print culture and political use of mass media from film to television and internet. Some of the themes covered in the course are: symbols and symbolism of political power, imagery of specific political values, emotional appeal, political propaganda, politics of gender and race, and visual strategies of political opposition and resistance.

A-H