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Image Theory

Image Theory

Code	13079
Year	1
Semester	S2
ECTS Credits	6
Workload	OT(15H)/TP(45H)
Scientific area	Communication Sciences
Mode of delivery	Theoretical-practical
Work placements	Not applicable.
Learning outcomes	The purpose of this UC is to introduce students to the "world of image": nature, definitions, determinative elements, its origin and value in different religions and philosophical systems, throughout history. 1) Be able to apply abstract notions -- such as 'imago', 'eikôn', 'eidôlon', symbol, 'ius imaginum', 'repraesentatio', and "mimèsis", in the positive or negative sense -- in different contexts. 2) Be able to make judgments about historical and cultural processes. For example, the relation between the origin of images in the past and the awareness of death; the concealment of the image by "realm of visual" (Debray Belting), and so forth; 3) To be able to explain, in general, the relative value that the images assume in the pagan, Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions. 4) To be able to explain and justify notions such as iconoclasm, idolatry, 'iconodulia', etc
Syllabus	INTROD. - On the possibility of a theory of image 1) The image, the death and the double. The relationship between awareness of death and birth of the image. Image as a desire for eternity? 2) The Platonic and Aristotelian paradigm. Mimesis as degradation of the “Idea” and the pedagogy of the imagination by “anamnesis”. The 'allegory of the cave' and the Aristotelian thesis that "imitate is congenital in man" (Poetics, 1448 a). 3) From the prohibition of images to the "man as a symbolic animal." (Cassirer). The "idolatrous" desire to see against the religious prohibition: "You shall not make images in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below". The problematic relationship between Images, Power and Humor. «To imagine» as a possible space for Freedom? From photographic camera, in XIX century, to the Smartphone’s network. 4) The return of symbolic imagination. The iconoclastic and iconophile hermeneutics. The demand for a different «Image Ontology» in H.G.- Gadamer's «Truth and Method». From The emergence of the photographic camera, in XIX century, to the Smartphone’s network. CONCL.- Simulacra, simulations and the advent of 'hyperreality'
Main Bibliography	BAUDRILLARD Jean, Simulacros e Simulação, Lisboa, Relógio D’Água, 1991 BELTING Hans, A Verdadeira Imagem. Entre a fé e a suspeita das imagens: cenários históricos, (trad. port. A. Morão), Porto, Edição Dafne Editora, 2011; BELTING Hans, Antropologia da Imagem. Para uma ciência da imagem, KKYM+EAUM, Lisboa, 2014 CASSIRER Ernst, Ensaio sobre o Homem, Lisboa, Guimarães Editores, 1995; DEBRAY Régis, Vie et mort de l’image, Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 1992 (cap. I: «Nascimento [da imagem] pela morte»]; DURAND Gilbert, A Imaginação Simbólica, Lisboa, Edições 70, 1995; FRANCASTEL Pierre, A imagem, a visão e a imaginação: objecto fílmico e objecto plástico, Lisboa, Edições 70, 1998; GADAMER Hans-Georg, Verdad y metodo I. (trad. esp. de A. Aparicio y R. Agapito), Salamanca, Sígueme, 1993, [«O valor ontológico das imagens», pp. 182-222]; GARCIA FERNANDEZ E., et alii, Historia general de la imagen. Perspectivas de la comunicación audiovisual, Univ. Europea, CEES Ediciones, Madrid, 2000; LAMB Trevor D., «A fascinante evolução do olho», in: Sciam nº 10, 2012, pp. 28-33; MARTINE Joly, A imagem e a sua interpretação, Edições 70, Lisboa, 2002; PLATÃO, A República, Lisboa, FCG, 1987 (Livros VII e X); VILLAFAÑE Justo, Introducción a la teoría de la imagen, Madrid, Pirámide, 1992; WITTGENSTEIN Ludwig, Investigações Filosóficas (trad. port. e pref. M.S. Lourenço), Lisboa, FCG, 1987. VILLAFAÑE Justo, Introducción a la teoría de la imagen, Madrid, Pirámide, 1992
Language	Portuguese. Tutorial support is available in English.