Violence and Visual Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Tutor: Sean Willcock
• Assessment: a 5000-word essay (100%)

This module examines the aesthetics of violence during the long nineteenth century. It considers the conventions that emerged across photography, illustrated journalism and the fine arts for depicting wide-ranging forms of violence, from the criminal to the geopolitical. How did the emergence of mass media shape perceptions of warfare and violent crime? Did such visual practices enable new, distinctly modern forms of violence to emerge? What role did images play in the development of humanitarian ideals? And what role did violence play in the development of modern artistic ideals? We will have in-depth discussions about the ethical and aesthetic issues at stake in modern representations of violence, from the early war photographs of Roger Fenton to the aggressive aesthetics of Modernist movements such as Vorticism.

Indicative module syllabus

• The Ethics of Witnessing
• Illustrated War Reportage
• Violent Photography
• Sympathy, Humanitarianism, and Mass Media
• Representing Crime and Punishment
• Violence and the Fine Arts
• ‘Slow’ Violence: Documenting Poverty
• Violence of the Avant-Garde
• Animals and Violence
• Art of the First World War

By the end of this module, you will have:

• a detailed knowledge of aspects of the visual cultures of violence during the Victorian era
• the ability to observe, identify and analyse works of visual culture
• a critical awareness of the functions of such works within the social and cultural contexts of their production and reception
• become familiar with current debates and approaches to the subject.