2016/17 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ARTF3100 Encountering Things: Art and Entanglement in Anglo-Saxon England

20 creditsClass Size: 18

Module manager: Catherine Karkov
Email: c.e.karkov@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2016/17

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

Objects and images do not exist on their own, but only as parts of networks or entanglements. Rather than interacting they intra-act with (mutually constitute) the world—place, time, other objects, the viewers who encounter them. Indeed, it has been argued that objects do not exist outside of our encounters with them in time and in place, the world in them and them in the world, and that knowing itself is a material practice. Encountering things in this way also helps us to rework temporal and disciplinary boundaries, breaking down binaries such as then/now, there/here, or them/us.

Objectives

This module will focus on art in Anglo-Saxon England, exploring aspects of its materials and materiality through the lens of diffraction theory. How did matter (earth, stone, skin, bone) matter? How is the work of art created in our encounter with it, and what sort of an art-work is it? At the same time, how are those who created, viewed and used these objects simultaneously created in that same moment? Diffraction theory is concerned with what is produced in the moment or process of encounter, so we must also ask how the boundary between subject and object continues to be broken down today. We will be reading primary texts (in translation) that explore the ways in which the Anglo-Saxons thought about things, materials, and the world around them, and that also reveal how objects spoke back. These texts will be complemented by secondary sources that will help us both to theorise and to historicise multiple types of objects and materials.

Learning outcomes
Critical analysis of primary and secondary sources
- Understanding of key concepts in contemporary critical theory and critical humanities
- Verbal fluency in constructing a logical and coherent argument
- Research skills
- Collaborative skills
- Participation in class discussions
- Analysis of images, texts and objects
- Professionalism in planning, organisation and delivery of final conference

Syllabus

Week 1
Introduction: Artworks as phenomena

This class will introduce some of the key features of Anglo-Saxon art and as entanglement/diffraction—things as the entanglement of ideas and materials. How are subjects and objects mutually constituted? What is the ontology of phenomena? Why do these questions matter?

Week 2
Stone

Architecture. Stone is earth, home, material, object, living phenomenon. This class will examine the movement of stone in the world and the movement of the world in its encounter with stone as both object and living force.

Week 3
Stone continued

Sculpture. Continuing our discussion from last week, this class will explore stone as a speaking as well as a living phenomenon. How did stone open itself to the world? Grow from the earth? Transform its materiality?

There is plenty of Anglo-Saxon sculpture to be seen locally in (for example) Leeds Minster, Otley, Ilkley, York.

Week 4
Skin

The book as body is a well-established trope of the middle ages, but what is the larger ecology of the book? How are the human and the animal entangled in and on its pages? What were the ethics of reading in Anglo-Saxon England?

Week 5
Skin continued

This question will explore some of the political work done by books as they circulated in the world. How did they work to write a nation into being? How did they map and control, and how was that a feature of their materiality? Is the book a monster?

Week 6
Reading Week: field trip to Durham, the city, the shrine, the cathedral

Week 7
Short essays and discussion

Week 8
Bodies and bones

The last two classes of the term will focus on relics and reliquaries. This week we will revisit Durham as city, cathedral, reliquary, work of stone and bone and words. How have and do the living entangle with the dead in this place? What are its secular/religious economies/ecologies?

Week 9
Bodies and bones

Bone is a material at once living and dead. Our last seminar session will focus on the Franks Casket, an 8th-century whalebone box in the British Museum. We will explore its thingness, its whaleness, its voices, its place in and as community.

Weeks 10 and 11
Conference

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Class tests, exams and assessment	2	2.00	4.00
Group learning	7	2.00	14.00
Seminar	8	2.00	16.00
Private study hours			166.00
Total Contact hours			34.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Optional field trip included in private study time

The two essays will require extensive research, and the conference presentation will require significant preparation. Weekly readings and preparation of in-class discussions of them will also require independent study on a regular basis.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Student progress will be monitored through weekly participation in seminars, through the short mid-term essay (and participation in discussion groups of these essays), and through preparation for and participation in the final conference.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1 x 1,000-2,000	25.00
Essay	1 x 3,000-4,000	50.00
Presentation	Class participation and final conference presentation	25.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 31/03/2016

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