History in Images : a critical approach [ LHIST1400 ]

Taking 15 hours of course introducing methods of image analysis (ARKE 1255) or demonstrating equivalent proficiency.

The course will be organized in three phases :
- Relying on the general courses of the Bachelor's degree in history, the course deepens the critical approach to figurative documents of various types, from antiquity to the contemporary period, shedding light on critical problems posed at once by their typology, heuristics and interpretation;
- It involves a certain number of exercises analysing various types of images;
- It structures, synthesizes and tries to generalize on contributions resulting from solving problems arising due to recourse to the figurative sources analysed in the exercises.

By the end of this instruction, students should be trained in using the figurative as sources for the historian :
- retracing the past; - using realia (landscapes, infrastructures, tools, etc. ...);
- perceiving mental and collective representations;
- understanding their links with political, economic and social history.

Evaluation : Based on three written works.

The course deepens the critical approach to figurative documents of various types, from antiquity to the contemporary period, shedding light on critical problems posed by their typology, heuristics and interpretation. After a general methodological introduction to image analysis, the course takes up the more specific analysis of older images and more contemporary images, with briefer glances at mobile images (cinema, television). Students are invited to react to these analyses, and then to take part.

Teaching materials : Student notes.

Teaching : At least two co-teachers.