Image Theory

Code	16994
Year	3
Semester	S2
ECTS Credits	6
Workload	OT(15H)/TP(45H)
Scientific area	Art and Design
Entry requirements	n.a.
Learning outcomes	1) Be able to justify the complexity and historicity of the notion of imago and to establish a genealogical relationship between image and death; 2) Be able to analyze an image: identify and explain its elements; 3) Define fundamental notions within the Theory of the Image: eikôn, imago, eidôlon, mimesis, 'ius imaginum', iconoclasm, iconodule, idolatry...; 4) Be able to make critical and reasoned judgments about complex historical-cultural processes (eg, R. Debray, H. Belting, J. Baudrillard); 5) Be able to explain, in general, the relative value that the image assumes in pagan, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions; 6) Be able to identify, comment, explain, and criticize, from texts, theoretical models of image appreciation: for example, the mimetic model of ontological degradation; 7) Recognize and explain the «image ontology» type present in contemporary texts, works, movements, and authors.
Syllabus	1. IMAGE, DEATH AND DOUBLE. From the mythical and ancestral desire to figure. The 'immortalizing' power of images. 2. THE PARADIGM OF MIMETIC DEGRADATION (PLATO). Imaginal mimêsis as ontolophic degradation of the Idea (eîdos/idéa). The Allegory of the Cave and the myth of the «three beds». 3. THE PROHIBITION OF IMAGES TO THE «SYMBOLIC ANIMAL». The idolatrous desire to see and touch in the face of religious prohibition: You shall not make images! The problematic relationship between Images, Power, and Humor. Reductive hermeneutics and the new «image ontology». 4. FROM 'CLOSED WORK' - R. Barthes: the 'this-was' photograph - TO 'OPEN WORK': U. Eco and H.-G. Gadamer. CONCLUSION. Beyond hyperreality. Hybridization and deep-fake.
Main Bibliography	Main bibliography: BARTHES Roland, A Câmara Clara, Edições 70, Lx., 2006 BAUDRILLARD Jean, Simulacros e Simulação, Lx., Relógio D'Água, 1991 BELTING Hans, A Verdadeira Imagem, Porto, Edição Dafne Editora, 2011. CASSIRER Ernst, Ensaio sobre o Homem, Lx., Guimarães Ed., 1995. DEBRAY Régis, Vie et mort de li’mage, Gallimard, Paris, 1992 DURAND Gilbert, A Imaginação Simbólica, Lx., Ed.70, 1995 ECO Umberto, Obra Aberta, Lisboa, Difel, 1989. GADAMER Hans-Georg, Verdad y metodo I., Sígueme, 1993; GARCIA FERNANDEZ E., Historia general de la imagen, Madrid, 2000. MARTINE Joly, A imagem e a sua interpretação, Ed.70, Lisboa, 2002. MIRZOEFF Nicholas, The Visual Culture Reader, Routledge, London / New York, 2002. NAIL Thomas, Theory of the Image, Oxford University Press, New York, 2019. PLATÃO, A República, Lisboa, FCG, 1987 (Livros VI, VII e X). VILLAFAÑE Justo, Introducción a la teoría de la imagen, Madrid, Pirámide, 1992.
Language	Portuguese. Tutorial support is available in English.