107-416 The Visual Culture of Colonial Australia

Admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth-year honours in art history.

This subject guides students towards an understanding of the visual culture of colonial Australia. It engages with the key concepts of vision that are central to recent art history and theory. Visual concepts, such as 'the gaze' or spectatorship will be related to a wide range of cultural productions that date from the early days of white exploration and settlement of the continent to the art of Australian impressionism towards the end of the 19th century. The subject first considers natural history and the interpretation of early colonial images of flora and fauna from a Foucauldian point of view. It then considers the historical construction of vision through the aesthetic doctrine known as the 'association of ideas' and its relationship to the classic aesthetic categories of the sublime, the beautiful and the picturesque. The subject, however, looks further, beyond aesthetics, to extend the boundaries of interpretation relevant to the colonial pictorial archive and colonial culture. Students will engage with themes relevant to immigration and early settlement such as nostalgia, memory and alienation. They will also engage with issues of race, class and age by studying representations of Tasmanian Aborigines, the bushranger Ned Kelly and colonial children. Late 19th century images of the female nude in the landscape and of the Australian beach or seaside resort will also be examined to engage with issues concerning gender, class and leisure.

• be able to research through the competent use of the library and other information sources, and be able to define areas of inquiry and methods of research in the preparation of essays;

• be able to conceptualise theoretical problems, form judgements and arguments and communicate critically, creatively and theoretically through essay writing, tutorial discussion and presentations;

• be able to communicate knowledge intelligibly and economically through essay writing and tutorial discussion;

• be able to manage and organise workloads for recommended reading, the completion of essays and assignments and examination revision;

• be able to participate in team work through involvement in syndicate groups and group discussions.

A 2000 words class paper 40% (due during the semester) and 3000 word research essay 50% (due in the examination period), and class participation 10%. A minimum 75% attendance at tutorials is also expected as a hurdle requirement in order to pass the subject.