To equip students with the analytical tools and critical vocabulary necessary to 'read' any still image in terms of its aesthetic qualities. The images studied will include: advertising (both commercial and public information advertising) commercial logotypes, bande dessinée and selected fine art images. Many of the images will be challenging depicting or suggesting violence;

To give students an 'image bank' by introducing them to the diversity of social and cultural contexts in which images are important carriers of meaning in France;

To introduce students to the critical vocabulary of semiology as far as it is useful for the analysis of images. These tools and vocabulary used during the module are intended to be useful in the world beyond the module;

To give students the confidence to think critically and independently about images and to be aware of the partisan uses to which they are frequently put.

(LO1) On successful completion of this module students will be able to: Quickly and cogently analyse an image both orally and in writing.

(LO2) Ask informed questions about the cultural context and possible functions of a given image.

(LO3) Appreciate a selection of the most influential images in France (and of France) from a range of different non-fictional and fictional contexts: advertising, the bande dessinée, company logotypes and satirical cartoons.

(LO4) Appreciate a selection of the different discourses which have been used in France to analyse the image such as semiology and modern art criticism.

(LO5) Interact constructively with other students in the electronic discussion and project fora WIKIS associated with the module content.

(LO6) Select and apply relevant French-language secondary materials to enrich their interpretations of images.

(LO7) Understand the fundamental differences between the French and English-speaking traditions of image analysis: Barthes, Jakobson, Pierce, David Scott.

(S1) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Presentation skills - written

(S2) Commercial awareness - Relevant understanding of organisations

(S3) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Media analysis

Teaching Method 1 - Seminar
Description: The teaching and learning format for this module will be one weekly seminar of two hours in duration (with a small break about half way through). Each content unit, see Syllabus for detail, will be introduced the week before by means of a short lecture and/or by electronic learning resources available on VITAL. The rest of the seminar will be given over to lecturer-student or supervised student-led discussion on images, their meanings and their cultural contexts. Students will be offered guidance in their reading of secondary sources and encouraged to try develop their skills in the technical aspects of the analysis of images. They are also given the opportunity to discuss with each other in an external supervised, but collaborative forum (the VITAL WIKI) the challenging images that they will be show in the course of the module. Since its inception the seminar groups have met the instructor in the Tate Gallery during tutorial week for an extra session discussing violence in fine art images. This is now enhanced by the UoL/Tate partnership.
Attendance Recorded: Yes
Notes: Including student presentations, mini-lectures, review of student WIKIS, feedback on assessment.

This module trains students to analyse images. The images come from a variety of French contexts including: commercial and public information advertising, commercial logotypes, the bande dessinée, selected fine art images and satirical cartoons. Students acquire a critical specialist vocabulary and practise the art of image analysis which enables them to both evaluate an image from an aesthetic point of view and to show how it works as a piece of visual communication. Some of the images analysed in this module are challenging because they either depict or suggest violence. Students on the module use WIKIS (editable websites) on VITAL to exchange and refine their ideas.
Seminars may include:

Prise de contact. Introduction to the aims and objectives of the module;

Ways of seeing: Semiology: the science of signs and how to 'read' an image. Ways of seeing (in) France;

Reading the image in 1960s Advertising: Roland Barthes;

Introduction to the contemporary French advertising images; (return of Image Analysis one);

Image and text relationship in advertising;

Advertising and violence in France;

The commercial logotype in France: Yoplait, Citroën and BNP-Paribas;

Ways of seeing comic and cartoon art;

The French bande dessinée, le septième art; (return of Image Analysis two);

The French bande dessinée and national identity: Astérix le Gaulois;

Image and text in French bande dessinée: Astérix le Gaulois;

The contemporary expression of the French tradition of satirical political cartoons.