Women's Photography and Feminist Aesthetics, Spring 2014

professor Claire Raymond scp2u@virginia.edu

office hours 209 Fayerweather, Tuesday afternoons by appointment; Thursdays between 10 am and 4 *by appointment*

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Class Agenda:

In this course, we explore the question of whether there might be something called a 'feminist aesthetics.' We look at the work of a handful of women photographers, as well as reading criticism about photography, to leverage our exploration into feminist aesthetics. The course works within the frame of feminist discourse. The course is not intended as a survey course but instead presents the work of a small number of photographers whom I find interesting, and whose work we will interpret in conjunction with readings in criticism and theory.

Course Requirements & Grades:

Regular attendance is mandatory, class participation counts for 15 % of your grade. Although we are a larger class than a seminar, I encourage and expect participation in this class, which will take the form of a question and answer session incorporated into each lecture. Students are expected both to keep up with readings and to attend class, in which we will view photographs. Each lecture, one student will be the designated questioner, required for that lecture to make a comment or raise a question on the readings and/or photographs, while all students are welcome to make comments and raise questions in every lecture. There will be a mid term exam, a term paper, and a term exam. The in-class mid term exam counts for 25 % of your grade, the term paper (15 pages long, exclusive of illustrations, please) due on May 5th counts for 25 % of your grade, while a term exam which will occur on the day the university registrar sets for our class exam, counts for 35 % of your grade. The paper will be on the photographer and/or topic of your choice but you must discuss the topic with me during an office hour meeting. Please: NO electronic equipment turned on in the classroom, ie, no computers, i-pads, cellphones--pen, pencil and paper only please.

Required Texts

Batchen, Burning with Desire

Sontag, On Photography

Barthes, Camera Lucida

Course Packet, sold at NK Design (NK is a private store on Elliewood, across from the back entrance of Starbucks and before Para coffee)

Access to course Collab site is essential. All photographs viewed during the semester are pulled from this Collab site. Some readings are only available on the Collab site. Hence, you must be able to access the Collab site to participate in the class.

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Reading and Viewing Schedule—Class Meets Tuesday/Thursday; please prepare the first listed reading for Tuesday, the second for Thursday; where there are 3 readings, I will direct you as to which to read first

Week of January 13^th

Photographs of Clementina, Viscountess Hawarden

Linda Nochlin, Why have There been no great women artists (Collab site)

Modes of Viewing *read Introduction only* (Collab site)

Week  of January 20^st

Photographs of Clementina, Viscountess Hawarden, and Julia Margaret Cameron

Batchen, Burning with Desire, pages  24-53 and page 56-78

Week of January 27^th

Photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron

Batchen, Burning with Desire, pages 78-104

Julia Margaret Cameron Allegories (Collab site)

Mythopoesis in Julia Margaret Cameron (Collab site)

Week of February 3rd

Photographs of Claude Cahun

Carolyn Dean, Claude Cahun’s Double (Collab site)

Claude Cahun, second reading (Collab site) 

Barthes, Camera Lucida, pages 1- 45

Week of February 10th

Photographs of Lee Miller

Paula Salvio, Uncanny Exposure (Collab site)

Caitlin Davis, Lee Miller’s Revenge on Culture (Collab site)

Lorraine Sim, A Different War Landscape (Collab site)

Week of February 17^th

Grouped review of photographers, segue way to later 20^th century works

Batchen, Burning with Desire, pages 104- 134; Batchen, Burning with Desire, pages 174 to 204

Sontag, Melancholy Objects; Barthes, Camera Lucida, pages 45-81

week of February 24th

Photographs of Diane Arbus

Sontag, America Seen Through Photographs Darkly

Philips, A Question of Belief (Collab site)

Selkirk, In the Dark Room (Collab site)

Week of March 3rd

Photographs of Ana Mendieta

Cabanas, Pain of Cuba Body I Am (Collab site)

Sontag, The Image World

 Mid Term Exam: March 6th, a Thursday

Week of March 17^th

Photographs of Ana Mendieta and Francesca Woodman

Serial Images (Collab site)

Course packet, first Woodman reading

Week of March 24^th

Photographs of Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman's Self Images (Collab)

Course packet, 2^nd Woodman reading

Week of March 31st

Photographs of Nan Goldin

A Radiant Eye Yearns From Me (Collab site)

Barthes, Camera Lucida, page 81-120

Sontag, In Plato’s Cave

Week of April 7th

Photographs of Carrie Mae Weems

bell hooks, (Collab site)

Course packet, Weems reading “Haunting and Taunting”

Week of April 14^th

Photographs of Sally Mann

Course packet, Mann reading

Course packet, Old Mistresses reading

Week of April 21st

Photographic works by Rebecca Belmore

for Tuesday: Rebecca Belmore, First Reading AND Rebecca Belmore Rising to the Occasion (both from Collab)

for Thursday: Belmore, more (Collab site)

and in Course packet, reading, pages 37-69

Week of April 28^th

Photographs of Mary Ellen Mark

Course packet, pages 27-37

Sontag, conclusion

Review for term exam* the review will take place Wednesday, April 30th, at 12 o'clock until 1.15pm. 

The date for the final exam is set by UREG, and can be found on the UVa calendar. The exam will be held in the same classroom where we have been holding class.

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Term Papers are due Tuesday, May 6th, by 12 o'clock, midday, in my office: 209 Fayerweather. The goal of the term paper is for each student to develop her/his personal interest in one photographer, or one theme, or one question, encountered during this class. You must set up at least a brief office meeting with me to ratify this topic before you begin working on the paper but other than that stipulation you have a fair degree of latitude in choosing your paper topic. Please recognize that not only is this paper your chance to delve more deeply into an aspect of the course that interests you but also it is the place in which to develop your original ideas about photography, feminism, and any other topic we've broached this semester. The paper must be fifteen pages long, 12 point Times New Roman font, standard margins. It is recommended that you include images discussed in your paper, however these images do *not* count toward page length; ditto for works cited, which should be Chicago Style Manual. Fifteen pages means fifteen pages of your writing; the images and works cited are in addition to that fifteen page length.

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Films that support this class

Carrie Mae Weems: An Artist Reflects (link   https://www.portlandartmuseum.org/carriemaeweems)

Womanhouse (a 1974 documentary film about Womanhouse, by Johanna Demetrakas)

What Remains (a 2007 documentary film about Sally Mann)

Fuego de Tierra (a film about Ana Mendieta)

The Fancy (an Elisabeth Subrin film, made in response to Francesca Woodman)

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Further notes of importance: Plagiarism means the copying of words or ideas of another writer without citing that writer. If you plagiarize in this class, I will set up a meeting at which you, the head of ARTH, and I sit down and discuss the situation. Probably that means that at best you will withdraw without credit from the class. Therefore, do not plagiarize. I love discussing student's papers with students during office hours. If you are struggling with your term paper, please make an appointment, come in and talk. I am always glad to meet with students to discuss their work.

Since a significant percentage of your grade is generated by class attendance, frequent absences for *any* reason may yield an unsatisfying grade. It is a courtesy to email me if you are absent but only regularly attending class will build a strong grade in this course. No amount or quality of excuses can change that fact.

If you have learning needs diagnosed by LNEC, please notify me. I fully support a fair and equitable learning environment for all students.

Thank you!

CR