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 106-047 Art/Pornography/Blasphemy/Propaganda

Note

Formerly available as 106-270/370. Students who have completed 106-270/370 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Availability

2nd and 3rd year

Credit Points

12.5

Coordinator

David Bennett

Prerequisites

Usually 25 points of first year English, see Prerequisites

Semester

1 (view timetable)

Contact

A 1-hour lecture per week and nine 2-hour tutorials scheduled across the semester

Subject Description

An examination of the contested boundaries between Art and its presumed 'others' - pornography, blasphemy and propaganda - during the twentieth century. The subject provides an introduction to the history and politics of censorship of the arts in the West; the legal, commercial and social processes by which censorship operates; its role in defining 'artistic merit'; and the ways in which the concept of 'aesthetic value' has been employed to defend literary, filmic and musical texts against charges of obscenity, blasphemy and/or propaganda.

Assessment

Written work totalling 4000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A subject reader will be available. Any edition of the following texts:

  • H Darville, The Hand That Signed the Paper.
  • B E Ellis, American Psycho.
  • M Kundera, Unbearable Lightness of Being.
  • D H Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover.
  • S Rushdie, Satanic Verses.
  • P Reage, Story of O (Part 1).
  • O Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Search : Index : Faculty of Arts : English
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