What Are We Looking At? Paradoxes of the Visual

Catalog description

In Western cultures, the visual sense has traditionally received preferential treatment, having been associated most closely with knowledge and understanding, as demonstrated by the words ‘evidence’ and ‘theory.’ Especially at academic institutions, we want both ‘overview’ and ‘insight,’ to ‘look at’ something ‘very closely,’ and examine it through various ‘lenses’ (theoretical frameworks). On the other hand, there is also the obverse, where the optical stands for superficiality, mere appearance, and even deception and confusion. In other words, when we take a closer look at ‘seeing,’ things appear more complicated than they did at first glance. Texts and movies by Plato, Sophocles, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Goethe, Kleist, Oscar Wilde, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Stéphane Mallarmé, Tuvia Ruebner, Michel Foucault, Paul de Man, Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Toni Morrison. Taught in English, no prerequisites.